Hatton/Marquez: Similar Crossroads, Potential Match In the Making?

By Peter Howells: Last Saturday night, Juan Manuel Marquez put in a brave effort but was completely dominated by Floyd Mayweather Jr in a shutout. Such dominating losses usually result in a fighter of Marquez’s age being called upon to retire. Luckily however, (and rightfully so) Marquez has come out of the match with the same amount of respect as he had before thanks to his never-give-up attitude and the weight difference between the two fighters.

In interviews since the fight Marquez has mentioned possibly campaigning at light-welterweight instead of returning to lightweight. This makes sense to me. Marquez deserves the bigger fights and they’re all to be had around the light-welterweight/welterweight division and given more time, Marquez could possibly grow more naturally into the weight. There is also an exciting possible match up to test Marquez’s mettle around this weight against a fighter who is also at a career crossroad but is a proven money-maker.

The fighter I’m talking about of course is Ricky Hatton. Now I’m a huge Hatton fan but I like to think I’m not bias when writing about him. If I come across that way, I apologise. In his last fight of course Hatton was absolutely demolished (theres really no other word for it) by Manny Pacquaio. This led many to call for his retirement, myself included, but recent comments made by Hatton himself hint that he will carry on. If Hatton does carry on then I’d hate to see him drop to European level before he calls it a day. There are significant questions about Hatton, most prominent of which is his punch resistance. If he is to continue then I feel Marquez would be the fight for him. It would test whether Hatton could hang with the world class fighters anymore and if it turns out he couldn’t, hey, he’d make another wad of cash and could retire knowing he’d given it his best shot. Hatton has nothing to prove.

This is also the perfect fight for Marquez. Hatton is seen at the moment as a low risk/high reward fighter at the moment due to his two KO losses to Mayweather and Pacquaio. I don’t think Marquez would be panned for choosing to fight Hatton either due to the size difference either. If Marquez were to win then his confidence would be sky high and he could challenge the likes of Timothy Bradley. If he really did a job he’d be mentioned as a possible opponent for Pacquaio again, the current ruler at light-welterweight. I really feel this fight makes sense for both fighters.

Now let’s talk logistics. This fight should be pretty easy to make. Both fighters are promoted by Golden Boy. Both fighters would probably settle for a 50/50 split. I’d imagine the fight to end up in Vegas but could also happen in the UK, where Hatton’s name alone is enough to make both fighters shed loads of money. Due to both of them losing recently and given HBO being much more sensible about what it puts on PPV recently, I’d see this fight winding up on HBO WCB, not PPV. Sounds great, right? In essence this should be a pretty easy fight to make.

Both fighters have achieved so much already. Both could retire now and be remembered as national hero’s by their respective countries. But both want to carry on fighting by the sounds of it, and whilst some may disagree, that’s their own personal choice. All I’m saying is if they both do decide to carry on fighting, this is the fight that makes the most sense for them both at this stage in the careers. Just my opinion.

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