Hatton drops Hint of a Comeback
June 24th, 2009
By Liam Santiago: In history, very few of the greatest fighters retire undefeated. Roberto Duran, Muhammed Ali and Sugar Ray Robinson are just a few of the all time greats to taste defeat. Ricky Hatton tasted defeat for the second time against Manny Pacquiao in May and has to make the biggest decision of his career, weather to retire or fight on. He has, however, recently dropped the strongest hint yet that he will fight again.
“After the Nathan Cleverly loss, Tony found himself in the same position I find myself in now. I had a bad defeat and was thinking ‘Have I had too many fights? Have I had enough?’ But Tony looked better than ever in winning the Prizefighter tournament and was supremely confident in his interviews. In the end he absolutely walked it.”
He went on to give a clear hint that he is likely to return to the ring once more.
“I’ve not made a decision on my future yet,” he said. “But if there is any inspiration I can take, it’s from what Tony did. Everyone thought it was over for him, but he’s come back. Maybe I should look at that and think ‘My career is not over yet’.”
However brutal that defeat against Manny Pacquiao was, Hatton will realise that great fighters do lose. It is a common fact of boxing. As Muhammed Ali once said, Only a man who knows what it is like to be defeated can reach down to the bottom of his soul and come up with the extra ounce of power it takes to win when the match is even. Before the Pacquiao fight, Pauli Malignaggi was ranked second below Hatton in the light-welterweight rankings. Hatton gave Malignaggi a boxing lesson and stopped him in the 11th round, which Miguel Cotto failed to do when he defeated him. Who can say Ricky is ‘shot’ when only two fights ago he put on the performance of his life.
As Ricky has previously said, after his defeat to Mayweather, what kind of a fighter retires because they lost. Surely fighting on and showing ultimate courage, win or lose, is the best way of gaining respect. Hatton has always gone after the best fighters, calling out Mayweather and Pacquiao are the obvious examples. This desire and courage that he shows in fighting the best, sadly reflects in his record. He didn’t have to call Mayweather out and go up to welterweight to fight him, he chose to because he would rather lose than skirt round the edges, as some undefeated fighters do.
Hatton has already been strongly linked to a mega fight with Amir Khan, providing Khan beats Kotelnik next month. Other options are long time rival, Junior Witter who Hatton has refused to fight for years. What I, personally, do not want to see is a comeback, confidence booster fight against a very average opponent on sky box-office. Hatton is a major ticket seller and will have the fan base to carry on being a box-office star until the day he retires. However, this comeback is much different to the Mayweather defeat. He is now considered by a good portion of boxing fans and writers as ‘shot’. He might be, only he can prove he’s not, but to come back and fight a very average opponent would be disappointing for his fans. This is not likely however, as rumours are circling that promoters are in talks over fighting Khan next. If Ricky can beat Khan, which I believe he can, it will open a new door for him, he will no longer be that shot fighter that lost to an ex featherweight, he may go on to fight Witter, and then on to fight Bradley.
The only person that can prove if Hatton has anything left is him and I am sure he will try, if nothing else. As has been said, he may have lost but he has always gone after the best and fought the best which not all champions can say. There are many major bouts that could’ve happened that have not. Mayweather vs Cotto, Mayweather vs Mosley, Calzaghe vs Froch. Hatton may not be undefeated anymore, but whatever he decides to do he can hold his head high knowing he pushed himself to fight the best. And, who knows, Hatton might pull off the best comeback of all time.
Tags: 15 Responses to “Hatton drops Hint of a Comeback”
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hatton should have 3 more foghts in this order
witter
bradley
khan
The greatest fighters of all time arent undefeated. Look at rocky morciano he is undefeated but he is not ranked in the top 10 heavyweights. Calzaghe is a joke doesnt believe in rematches?? What the #### is that, I think when he saw hopkins fight pavlik, he saw a rejunivated hopkins.
Unfortunately, the question of how much Hatton really has left can only be answered in the ring.
The loss to Mayweather might have taken something out of him but like Henry Cooper said at the time, sometimes a boxer just has the misfortune of running into an “Ali” or “Sugar Ray” type figure who’s just got that extra bit of class.
With Pacquiao it was a little different. From the very outset of the fight, including the ring entrance, I thought that there were shades of Spinks/Tyson or Norton/Foreman. I could be totally wrong but I recieved the very distinct impression that Hatton just couldn’t entertain the belief that he was in with a realistic chance of winning.
Two rounds and one horrifying/classic knockout later, this proved a material fact.
Now there are two ways of looking at this. The first, and frankly the easiest to imagine, is that Hatton has become a “shot” fighter whos punch resistence and confidence have been dealt a irrevocable blow by Pacman.
The other perspective is that now having faced the very worst case scenario, the loss to Pac will actually take an enormous amount of pressure away from Hatton. Expectations of him since have shrunk dramatically so perhaps now that this whole p4p dream is over, Hatton can just concentrate on boxing inside of his comfort zone against slightly lesser opponents than his two conquerers.
Aided by the plethora of world class experience he has gained over the past four or five years there’s a good argument that he may still yet have something to offer.
ricky avoiding no one ahem ahem witter, bradely to name a few he’s fought no one but bums bar from mayweather and pac man
Yeah Great article,Khan, Don’t make me laugh keep avoiding presscott and valero ? Hatton avoid’s nobody, the best have been k.o’d and beat, look at Mosley, Oscar, Hopkins and Big Cobra is just starting is reign, We know Ricky is better than what happened with Manny
no one wants to see hatton fight again his punch resistance has gone he was getting knocked down in sparring before the manny fight hang up the gloves ricky or you will lose any respect the fans have for you
Great Article. After the Pacquiao KO, I initially thought Ricky should retire. However, puttin it into perspective about champions comin back from defeat and going on to better things, I think he should fight on. Look at Mosley, 3 fights ago everyone was callin him a a shot fighter now 1 good performance against Plasterito every1s hailin him as the best in the division. And I also agree with nepster, Ricky has never hid behind his ’0′ and given the chance to fight the best he took it – something that used to happen – Duran, Leonard etc but nowadays it seems to be all about keepin the ’0′ and then claiming to be one of the greatest ever – Mayweather, Calzaghe?. Please, Im British and Calzaghe isnt no greatest of all time. Anyways thats a different story. Id loved to see Ricky come bak, win 2/3 fights and earn himself a fight with someone like Cotto, that would be a great fight then who knows what could happen. What ever he decides to do, fight on or retire, I’ll always remember him for wantin to fight the best and never duckin anyone. All Hail the Hitman!
Good article, I respect the man so much for going for the top p4p fighters. And he earnt millions in the process!
I think he should fight on for a few more fights, fight the winner of Campbell vs Bradley!
Then if Khan beats Kotlenik in a knock out fashion, fight Khan!
3-4 more fights, then caLL it a day.
tru bulla hatton overrated british trash beat bypast fighters and nobodies and then wen the real deals arrive he just gets hit and ko’ed guess wat mayweather and pac man are elite but hatton is just s****e. Live with the fact people he shud retire and save himself the bother of getting beat off witter or khan which is a possibilty but of which i dont c it happeing due to kahn’s glass jaw
hatton shoud deffinatly retire. to get ko so badly so early can not be overcome, it was rickys confidence that he could stand up to anyone that made him who he was and will never get that back, it will always be at the back of his mind its over for him, he should get ou now b4 he loses 2 a pretender like khan/witter.
Ricky has still plenty to offer to the game. Okay, he’s not an upper echelon elite, as we’ve found out, but he STILL can generate some enthusiasm on his side of the continent. After “confidence builder” win he can face Amir Khan and/or Witter, two possible wins that could bring him back into the picture for another BIG one before the curtain finally comes down. Did anybody really actually believe that his very humbling loss to Pac was gonna be his last?? I didn’t. He deserves better. Go for it!
FIGHT KHAN HATTON AND SHUT HIM UP
Great article.. Whatever he chooses to do I wish him the best as he has made UK boxing great over the last few years..
M
Lets not any of us forget that Manny Pacquiao has been knocked out and has been defeated a lot more than Ricky Hatton, and Pacquaio went on to become
a champion.
Ricky Hatton is a great fighter, a great champion
and a great man. His fights have proven that.
Great article. I personally don’t think that Hatton is shot, just wasn’t able to compete at the very highest level. Him going after the toughest fights is why I’m a Hatton fan. He didn’t and never has hid behind his “0″. Losing is part of the game and I actually gave him more credit for going after Mayweather and challenging himself then continuing to fight B-level opposition. Good article!