Graham: “At his peak, Ricky [Hatton] would have destroyed Khan”
January 10th, 2010
By Sean McDaniel: In an interview at the Mirror, Billy Graham, the former trainer of Ricky Hatton, had a lot of positive things to say about his former fighter. “Ricky was the complete package. A fighter like Ricky Hatton comes along cone in a lifetime. Khan will never be able to match him.”
Graham trained Hatton through his entire boxing career until the two separated after Hatton’s fight with Juan Lazcano in 2008.
What made Ricky so special was not just his exciting style and his great wins. It was the way he appealed to everyone.” Graham seems to be touching on Hatton’s personal charm. There’s no question that Hatton has a great deal of charisma, and seems to have the golden touch with making fans like him as a person and not just a fighter.
Besides that, Hatton has a huge sense of humor and is comfortable talking in front of huge groups of people. If Hatton wasn’t a boxer, he could have been a standup comedian because he’s funny and natural on stage. Khan is shyer, and not quite as relaxed in front of big crowds like Hatton. Another thing that boxing fans like about Hatton is his modesty. He’s never been one to brag, and is the first one to point out his own weaknesses.
Graham says “No one else could attract the crowds he [Hatton] did, and take so many fans over to American to watch him fight. It was unbelievable.” Khan may end up being a huge star like Hatton some day, but it will take wins over top fighters like Marcos Maidana, Timothy Bradley, Devon Alexander and Kendall Holt for that to happen.
Even that might not be enough for Khan to become as popular as Hatton. Khan still might need a fight against a major star like Hatton or Floyd Mayweather Jr. to become the same kind of star that Hatton currently is. Right now, fans are wondering whether Khan will fight his Maidana. This is the kind of fight that Hatton would have likely had no second thoughts about taking. Hopefully, Khan takes the fight and then continues to move forward with his career so that he can become as big as Hatton someday.
As for who would have won had Hatton fought Khan in Ricky’s peak, I think Hatton would be too strong for Khan and would have likely been too tough for him. Freddie Roach, Khan’s trainer, would have designed a style of movement for a fight against Hatton, but I don’t think that would be good enough for Khan to beat him. Hatton would have caught up to Khan at some point in the fight, and unless Khan’s chin was able to stand up to the big punches from Hatton, he would be stopped by Ricky.
Tags: 52 Responses to “Graham: “At his peak, Ricky [Hatton] would have destroyed Khan””
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@zac
wheres your comedian jokes gone ?
Im dissapointed it seems your just like the rest.
Can give it but cant take it!!!!!!!.
joe wanted to fight bhop and jones earlier in his career they didnt want it they priced themselves out of a fight with calzaghe.Im sure if joe was american you would have a better opinion on him.
lacy who?? nice try you no who i mean he was supposed to come over the pond and wipe the floor with joe dont try and pretend you fancied average joe to win him did you???
Yes I am an American, but a real boxing fan who has seen alot of fights in Vegas, many where Brits have attended, so know what the average IQ of a British boxing fan is, if any of Hattons fans are anything to go by and messages on this blog. Calzaghe,Calzaghe,Calzaghe, the way you guys mention this dude like he is Leonidas from 300! Average, protected and waited till all the good opposition were OAP’s..Lacy who?? Undefeated records mean nothing, I think Floyd is turning into a joke, but please Calzaghe is the biggest “undefeated” joke out there.
hey zac i find u quite funny for an american unfortunately you have got confused a kebab is not a curry dish both taste g8 thou you are probably used to massive burgers etc.
You forgot to mention you sent your destroyer lacy over to ko calzaghe ! . Dont hate too much look what joe a brit has done for you americans he teached jeff how to box then ! Wait for it zac us brits go the extra mile good old super joe even spares his time to come over and school bhop and jones 4 24 rounds!! . Have some respect like bhop did he gave joe hugs 4 11 rounds he showed the love fair play !! Joe even let them drop him in the first just to come back and dance rings round em
peace dude ha ha ha
john murray? hahaha the greatest hypejob since khan lol
shakdeep kebab sort your narrow minded head out and yes i do box in notts i’m a super middleweight if you fancy it
saying that amir will get cought on the chin and lose is the same as saying dont cross the road you might get run over any thing can happen in a fight
John Murray STFU the point I made was supporting Ricky Hatton so were does religion and race come in2 that?
The ricky hatton that fought mayweather would of beat khan. However, this goes without saying khan is not at his peak yet. We should start this forum when khan is 26
King kong,murray,oli, you have catted out what you think which is fair enough. But iv never read such drastic measures being taken over ones gammoned thoughts. Clearly a garden full of hate spuwed over wedges which you cant vice. You 3 know nothing about boxing. My opinion speaks volumes unlike you 3.
@ john murray dont put king kahn down like the other two idiots istiaq and shakeeb he at least does have some valid points and debate. The other two numptys must be jokers !!!! Gammon head water tight etc what is that garbage stick to what you no sweet f a clowns
I agree. Khan is a superb boxer against no namers.
http://news.bbc.co.uk/sport1/hi/boxing/4573563.stm and i never said hatton is over the hill, i was re. your words were ” khan would destroy hatton in his PRIME and now” not me! id love 2 see referring to andrew saying tszyu was over the hill when hatton beat him!!! id love 2 see hatton hav a warm up fight khan take on maidana or bradley then have hatton khan @ wembley and show the yanks how 2 put a fight on, unlike the mayweather pacman, its know wounder the ufc is a big hit,l thyey give the fans the fights they want!!
Eze peeps some interesting opinions on here i do tend to agree with some of the peeps that regard hatton and amir khan as overhyped fighters, hattons only claim to a top fighter is beating Tsyzu and he was well out of his depth against mayweather and pacquaio, and no matter what time hatton had fought them he wouldve got beat!! Some peeps have also dropped in Prince Naseems name in here, cmon folks he was the most over hyped fighter along with Lennox Lewis in british history, the first real class boxer he fought in Barrera and Barrera handed his arse to him on a plate. As for Amir Khan he does have all the necessary skills and is more of a boxer than Hatton possibly another few years and he may be something special but at the moment he has been well shielded and hand picked opponents that wont trouble him really, chin is also suspect however he does have the attributes speed power and movement to get to the top only time will tell. And there has been significant improvements since Freddy Roach has been his trainer.
To finish Hatton way over rated and i believe Amir Khan would be too quick and slick for Hatton KO to amir khan knocking hatton in arounf out in rnd 8 i thnk. Neways lets celebrate we have had two class boxers that ive seen in my lifetime Nigel Benn and Chris Eubank thimply the best, lol
‘Cheese’ your gammoned thoughts are outlets. Down your boxing gym, do you even box? clearly not, your disaplin seems to be zero. On a tight water shed you would come unstuck>
true boxing fan your facts are wrong, It was proven that tszyu would derail from that list you just puked out, he was ranked 4th after much controversy.
tszyu over the hill? what boxer ranked no 2 p4p and the kind @ 140lb in 2005 ( the year hatton beat him) is classed as over the hill??
seems like a great bloke and obviously very popular with the brits but dont let that influence his standing amongst boxing elite.
apart from over hill tszyu who did hatton ever beat honestly. he just the tim henman over british boxing
This article is useless. “At his peak, Ricky Hatton would have distroyed Khan”….Khan isnt at his peak yet! Was Ricky Hattons peak at 23? I dont think so…I hate all this talk about if this boxer fought that boxer at that time. E.g If ricky hatton fought amir khan in his earlier days, khan would have been distroyed.
BORING! Get over it, people age its an on going process that has been around for millions of years. Oh bummer, we should have frozen Ricky Hatton at his prime age and then unfreeze him in 2009 to fight Amir khan.
istaq if what you say is true that he wud beat any1 @ lightwelter and hatton is finished then why dosnt he take the maidana fight or bradley,alexander! instead of a finished hatton or i b*tch slaping mallignaggi? i dnt take anything away from khan but why dont he back the talk of fighting the best and actualy fight the best!!!
Istiaq, you do have a point, but i think in gammoned waters khan would outlet himself, but im with you all the way. Khan is superb no nonsense boxing clerk.
Mattdevine, would you mind telling me what the lottery numbers are for sat, you seem to know alot about what will happen. thanks.
hatton would have nailed him middle to end of the fight .but if they got it on now khan would win.
of course khan wont be popular as ricky was coz more than of england are RACISTS!!!when ricky was beating unknowns for fun ENGLAND WAS KISSING HIS ASS…now khan’s beating unknowns for fun guess what…ENGLAND HATES HIM, OVERRATED, FIGHTS EASY FIGHTERS, please thats not the reason, its because KHAN ISNT WHITE…hatton is overrated piece of crap, only fought abt 5 world class and got knocked out in 2..khan will achieve more than ricky will ever dream of, even if england hates him or the whole of britain for that matter
Congratulations you are an absolute brainless moron.
Oli do you know anything about boxing? Clearly not. Boxing isnt two drunken pub users throwing off target breath shots at each other yknow. The kick boxing championships that “you competed in” in 05 are debagged from such outlets. In lehmans term ‘hold no water’. In essence of gammon, A peak Hatton would boldface an intemperated khan, in waites of viced thoughts from Now ’2010′. Fact.
totally different styles.hatton at his best i think would of stopped khan.khan is fit and fast but hatton would of cut the ring down with relentness pressure,dragged khan into a war and took into places he as never been b4 for a late stoppage anytime after 7 rounds.if they meet now khan will stop hatton late,hatton on his feet.rsc
I totally agree with Graham on Hatton being a terrific comedian. During one of HBO’s episode 24/7 on his Pacquiao fight there was a scene where his infamous trainer Floyd Mayweather Sr. was showing off a tape about pacman’s training style Ricky commented as “right hook roll under, right hook roll under, same move every time”. Ironically on his fight night he ended up doing the very part of the episode he was commenting before kissing the canvass. So funny that it could have been voted as one of Americas Funniest Home Video contender but in any case it garnered media attention as 2009 knock out of the year.
Certain aspects of Ricky’s style impress me, daniel c said the beauty of Hatton was that he can walk through an opponents punches and hit them twice as hard.Fair enough Daniel, how about his unexpectedly swift footwork? Anyways say what i may IMHO Hatton has real character which is something i dare say we can all appreciate. As far as Ricky being an awesome boxer well…I can’t really agree with that. He seems to lose concentration at critical times and when his swarming tactic doesn’t work he is left up slack alley. It has to be said his only 2 defeats were at the hands of current no 1&2 in the P4P rankings. I think Ricky needs to think carefully about who he will fight this year because i think it will be his last fight.
silly to say hatton at his peak would destroy khan mainly for the reason that khan hasn’t reached his peak yet.
once everyone agrees that khan has reached his peak then you can compare the two
Atleast Khan is enjoyable to watch box. I mean no doubt Hatton is a tough dude, whom can take a lot of punishment. Thats not something you can say about Khan. And if Khan ducks Maidana he’ll lost some respect from me for sure, although Froach is aparently saying Khan should vacate.
The main reason I hate Hatton is I hate watching him fight. Just hate his style. Even though he is a brawler somehow its not fun, just his lameass body hugs and body shots, and throw in some wild head shots. Its BS. Plus Prince Naz woulda destroyed him back in the day.
We aint blasting Hatton, just the fools who things he’s some P4P great. Sure he only lost to 2 great fighters, but who has he beaten? Only notable performance from him was outlasting a past prime Tszyu.
*that’s why I support them
Haha your such a c**k and you just proved it I’m on here defending Hatton, I also defend Khan because they have something in common there both British and so am I… That’s why u support them u dumb p***k.. Your points have no basis or fact to it they just stem out of hatred and jealously…
Plus how good could he have been to get his ass knocked out cold leading to hospitalization. I mean come on, the guy fought so many padded fights.
Hatton was a good boxer. But he sure as hell wasn’t charismatic, good looking, or particularly smart. The guy looks like the text book definition of dunce.
I think people that blatently hate on sportsman are pathetic… Why do people constantly criticise talented people in Britain? But yet they seem to love losers? Hatton was one of the best fighters Britain has produced and there still are people out there who will not give him the respect he deserves… And it’s really easy for these people to sit behind their laptop and type away but yet have never acheived much in their life themselves.. Simply pathetic!!!!
Oli- you have a big mouth and a lot of criticism considering that you’ve probably never stepped foot in a ring in ur life! ricky hatton has only lost to the two best fighters in his generation! i tell you what mate start being so critical when you achieve as much as a great like ricky hatton…i cant believe how ridiculously picky people like you are! ur never happy are you…if we all had ur attitude there would only be a handful of fighters in history with any recognition or respect
how the hell is he past his peak… secondly why is billy comparing a prime (when was he?) hatton with khan who still has a good 5-6 years to go before he reaches his peak…compare the 2 when khans retired… not now…idiots.
Also, can people stop nuthugging hatton that he only lost to the 2 best fighters…he should say 9 best adding margarito, judah, bradley, cotto, williams, berto, mosely.
Billy was also saying like pacquiao will be hurt and mite need to be hospitalized before the fight… he must be on something!
fair enuf oli, im not a khan fan either dont care bout him much but i do have to say i mean wot is this guy smoking? i could say at my peak i would destory roberto duran when robert duran is 150 yrs old… LETS SEE HOW KHANS CAREER GOES AND THEN AT THE END WE CAN COMPARE WHO WAS THE BETTER FIGHTER…right now khan is just a baby fighting nobodys but i do know for a fact tht at hatton at 23 was no where near khan… would u agree oli?
Another thing i wanted to say can people stop nuthugging hatton losing to best p4p fighters… theres no way he would beat williams at 147, mosely, judah (back then), cotto, margarito(maybe)… and i just dont see how a fighter who recently gets knocked out and all of a sudden HES PAST HIS PRIME…WTF??
Hattons “peak” was when he was in Manchester fighting journeymen. He had already been exposed by Collazo before Floyd and Paccy wiped the canvas with him.
Its too early to say what Khan will be like when he peaks.
wtf is this trainer retard? hes saying i could beat ali now but ali would kill me in his prime (i dont even box)
This trainer is proper sad…2 losses one really bad knockout and hatton is past his prime… haha wot a joke, if thts so then khan should be finished after getting ktfo by prescott. i mean seriously 2 losses and khan is faster wtffff … keep on hating khan
However, the most important thing is WE HAVENT SEEM KHAN IN HIS PRIME YET…Y DONT WE BE A BIT CLEVER AND SAY WHAT IF THEY MET IN THEIR PRIME…WUDNT THAT BE FAIR???
Hatton will still beat Khan if they ever fight. One good punch to Khan’s glass jaw and it will be all over.
Hatton aint that old, he is the same age as Manny and Floyd, he aint got no excuse.
And Hatton is charismatic? Give me a break.
@kam i agree hatton is a limited boxer but until Amir faces the likes of these.
Maussa, Lazcano, Urango, Castillo, Tszyu, Malignaggi, Collazo and Tackie were all highly respected fighters at some point.We cannot gauge how good he is at this point amir was impressive against salita but the kotelnic fight showed amir dosnt handle pressure well although i give him his dues he won i fancy him to take out maidana. AS for hatton vs collazo i agree he struggled and it could have gone either way but you forgot to mention that ricky put him on his arse!!!!!
khan vs maidana is gunna be fun! khan should win but not without a stumble or two! maidanas only prolific fight was the ortiz and maidana won that cuz ortiz had no heart and quit!
hatton had a peak for only one fight. that was the fight against tzou. besides that he has always been ordinary.
And hatton was beaten by Luis Callazo, but the judges gave it to hatton.
Your having a laugh Khan will develop into a totaly better technical and skilled fighter than hatton, even at his peak hatton as a fighter had limitations, very one paced, always lunged in and was just too open. He had decent wins against old tzyu and washed up castillo and the only reason the mayweather fight was close cos hatton was hugging him to death when mayweather had him at distance he was in another league. Khan in 2 years will be the complete package.
Ricky Hatton had a Peak?
billy graham no nonsence talker i totally agree with him.hatton would struggle now with amir but in his prime hatton wins no doubt.
true