Ricky Hatton sheds 70 lbs for Senchenko bout

By Boxing News - 11/19/2012 - Comments

Image: Ricky Hatton sheds 70 lbs for Senchenko boutBy Scott Gilfoid: If you’re wondering why Ricky Hatton (45-2, 32 KO’s) doesn’t look as powerful as he once did this Saturday night in his comeback fight against Vyacheslav Senchenko (32-1, 21 KO’s) at the Manchester Arena it’s probably because of all the weight that Hatton has taken off to get down to 147 in addition to the three and half years he’s been out of the ring.

During Hatton’s retirement following his loss to Manny Pacquiao, Hatton put on a lot of weight through overeating, not exercising and drinking. Hatton reportedly lost 5 stones [70 pounds] to get down to 147 for this fight, and that is an astronomical amount of weight for someone fighting at only 147. Hatton lost One-third of his body weight to fight the Ukrainian Senchenko.

Losing that kind of weight to fight as a heavyweight would be bad enough, but for someone whose natural weight is 147, that’s an absurd amount of flab to take off.

I honestly don’t see how Hatton will be anything like he once was because you don’t put on and then take off that kind of blubber without it slowing you down and weakening you. That would probably explain why Hatton looked so weak and slow recently in training video of him working out with his trainer.

If you look at video of Hatton training for his last fight against Manny Pacquiao, which was probably the worst that Hatton had effort looked, and then compared it to how he looks now, it’s like night and day.

Hatton looked so much faster and stronger back then in 2009 compared to now. That has be thinking that things might not go well for Hatton on Saturday night against Senchenko because without his speed and power, Hatton is just another slow, easy to hit fighter.

I can see Hatton turning the fight into an ugly wrestling match like his fight with Kostya Tszyu back in 2005. That would be really ugly to see, a Hatton unable to compete with Senchenko in an actual fight but then turning it into a wrestling match by grappling with him for 12 rounds while the referee doesn’t life a finger to stop the wrestling.

We won’t have Joe Cortez there to make it an actual boxing match if Hatton resorts to his wrestling, so I’m hoping whoever the referee is that he does a good job of keeping the fight clean.



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