Would Hatton fight Adrien Broner?

By Boxing News - 11/19/2012 - Comments

Image: Would Hatton fight Adrien Broner?By Scott Gilfoid: We saw in Ricky Hatton’s prime that he was sometimes selective in the types of fighters that he took on. Hatton never agreed to fight Junior Witter despite the fact that he was clearly the #2 light welterweight in the UK during Hatton’s prime.

Hatton is now making a comeback and he’s taking a fairly easy path by aiming at Vyacheslav Senchenko and Paulie Malignaggi, two fighters that are hardly in the class of the top welterweights like Floyd Mayweather Jr, Manny Pacquiao and Andre Berto. You can say those three fighters are worlds above Senchenko and Malignaggi. Facing Senchenko and Malignaggi is a pretty weak move in my book. And if Hatton retires off of those fights, that’s WEAK move to me. He might as well have stayed retired.

Hatton has said he could retire if he wins a world title, and with a possible fight against Malignaggi, the WBA welterweight champ, we could see Hatton quickly go off into the sunset without really facing anyone that you can consider a truly good fighter. I mean, Malignaggi just one a controversial decision over Pablo Cesar Cano, and that kind of tells you where Malignaggi’s at in terms of talent.

With that said I wonder whether Hatton would ever agree to face a fighter like unbeaten Adrien Broner (25-0, 21 KO’s). There’s no point in Hatton ever facing Mayweather or Pacquiao again because you can’t sell a fight between Hatton and those guys ever again because Hatton was knocked out by both in pretty one-sided fights. Nobody in their right mind would see those as potentially competitive fights worth purchasing on pay per view, at least I wouldn’t. Why pay to see Hatton get knocked out again. But I would be interested in seeing Hatton fight Broner. That I would pay to see. Hatton is a bigger fighter in terms of weight and has spent most of his career fighting at light welterweight until moving up to welterweight.

I think it would be a great fight because Broner is 5’7″, about the same height as Hatton and it doesn’t present a huge problem for Hatton in terms of reach and height like it would if he were to fight someone like Amir Khan.

It’s also a better fight for Hatton then if he were to fight guys like Khan or Kell Brook because Broner is better known in the United States than Khan and Brook. I mean, Khan is pretty well known now in the U.S, but not necessarily in a good way given his two recent defeats. There’s no question that Broner is highly respected by the American boxing public as a whole.

So my question is would Hatton take this fight against Broner or will is he just looking to take an easy path of fighting Senchenko and Malignaggi and then quickly retiring without facing any real tests? You have to remember that Hatton already knocked out Malignaggi, so that’s like going over old ground. You know what I mean? It’s going back to retake a course that you already got an A grade in to see if you can do a better job the second time. What good is that? How can Hatton even be satisfied with fighting a guy he already beat badly, and then retiring, as if he accomplished something. Forget that. I don’t see that as accomplishing anything.

If Malignaggi can’t even beat a fighter like Pablo Cesar Cano without controversy then how does Hatton come out ahead by beating Malignaggi second time? I think a move where Hatton could gain a TON of respect in the boxing community would be to take on Broner. The upside would be huge for both fighters, and Hatton get a lot more facing Broner then he would guys like Malignaggi, Kell Brook and Khan.

Hatton fighting those guys is like setting the bar low. But fighting Broner would be a huge deal because he’s well known and he’s the future of boxing. If Hatton could beat this guy he will have really accomplished something, and he could then retire off of that victory in a much better place mentally than if he just goes and beats Senchenko and Malignaggi and then retires. I don’t see any comparison really. Malignaggi is small time stuff, whereas Broner is huge.

Unfortunately I see Hatton never agreeing to fight Broner just as he never agreed to fight a prime Junior Witter. Hatton will likely be satisfied with the Senchenko and Malignaggi fights and then retire off of those fights win or lose. If it was me I wouldn’t be satisfied and I wouldn’t waste my time on the Malignaggi fight.



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