Hatton leaning towards Canelo beating Golovkin

Image: Hatton leaning towards Canelo beating Golovkin

By Allan Fox: Ricky Hatton is high on Saul “Canelo” Alvarez right now and leaning in his direction to do the job on middleweight champion Gennady “GGG” Golovkin on September 16. Hatton, a former two division world champion, says he keeps changing his mind about the Canelo-GGG fight.

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How Good could Ricky Hatton have Been Under a Top Trainer?

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By Rob Blakeman: Ricky Hatton was the greatest best piece of luck his trainer Billy Graham ever had, let’s be honest. Hatton had a natural aggression and a certain amount of athleticism and in all probability would have done well with any trainer. But I wonder how good he might have been if he had been with someone who taught the basic fundamentals of boxing from the start?

By the time I was brought in as conditioning coach for Hatton in late 2000 he already had some very bad habits which his trainer not only indulged but practically encouraged-and they weren’t only in boxing technique. Graham would give Hatton days off training when he was hung over-heck, they even got drunk together sometimes! Hatton at this embryonic point in his career really needed a firm figure of discipline in his life-not an enabler.

Maybe even worse than this was the lack of progressive and fundamental boxing training. I remember going to the Manchester England gym with my then training partner Richie Woodhall, to watch Hatton train.

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Hatton: Relikh did enough to beat Burns

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By Scott Gilfoid: Trainer Ricky Hatton believes that his fighter Kiryl Relikh (21-1, 19 KOs) did enough to deserve a narrow 12 round unanimous decision against WBA World 140lb champion Ricky Burns (41-5-1, 14 KOs) last Saturday night at the SSE Hydro in Glasgow, Scotland. Like a lot of boxing fans, Hatton was absolutely shocked at the dreadful scores handed down by the three judges that worked the fight.

Here are the score from the three judges: Raul Caiz Sr.116-112, Jesus Cova 118-110, and Terry O’Connor 116-112. Here is the score from Gilfoid: 112-112 for Relikh. With the blown call on the knockdown that occurred in the 12th round in which Burns was dropped, I would have had my score even wider for Relikh, but the referee Howard John Foster missed the knockdown.

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Relikh will beat Burns tonight, says Hatton

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By Scott Gilfoid: If trainer Ricky Hatton gets his wish, unbeaten #1 WBA challenger Kiryl Relikh (21-0, 19 KOs) will send WBA World light welterweight champion Ricky Burns (40-5-1, 14 KOs) skittering down to defeat tonight in their match at The SSE Hydro in Glasgow, Scotland. Hatton thinks the 26-year-old Relikh will break some hearts tonight by beating the hometown fighter Burns. Relikh is a NATURAL light welterweight unlike Burns, who has slowly eaten his way into the division. Power-wise, Burns is more of a super featherweight. He doesn’t have a light welterweight frame like Relikh.

Hatton just hopes that after Relikh beats Burns, he’ll be able to keep his many fans in Scotland. Relikh has the punching power, size and the youth to whip Burns like Dejan Zlaticanin did two years ago in 2014. The only question is does Relikh have the boxing skills and the talent to do the job.

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Crolla vs. Linares: Hatton picks Anthony to win

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By Scott Gilfoid: Ricky Hatton is picking WBA World lightweight champion Anthony Crolla (31-4-3, 13 KOs) to successfully defend his WBA title on Saturday night against challenger Jorge Linares (40-3, 27 KOs) at the Manchester Arena in Manchester, UK. Hatton doesn’t really say why he thinks the 29-year-old Crolla will win the fight other than him being a good body puncher.

Of course, the most obvious reason why you have to go with Crolla as the winner is because the fight is taking place in the UK. Having seen Crolla’s first fight against Darleys Perez, and his fights against Derry Mathews, and Gavin Rees, I think Crolla has been very, very lucky when it comes to the scoring of his fights. I had Crolla losing to Perez in their first fight, even with the referee taking points off from Perez in consecutive rounds in the 11th and 12th rounds. In my scoring, I had Crolla losing his second fight against Derry Mathews and in his fight against Gavin Rees.

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Hatton: Brook is Golovkin’s toughest test

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By Scott Gilfoid: Former two division world champion Ricky Hatton says IBF/IBO/WBA/WBC middleweight champion Gennady “GGG” Golovkin is on the verge of facing his toughest test of his 10-year pro career this Saturday night on September 10 against Britain’s Kell Brook (36-0, 25 KOs) at the O2 Arena in London, England.

Hatton isn’t ruling out a victory for Brook in this fight, but he understands that it’s going to be awfully difficult for him to do that given how hard Golovkin punches. However, Hatton brings up the example of his own win over then 35-year-old Kostya Tszyu in 2005 as a case that Brook could pull off the upset.

There are some differences though between what Hatton accomplished and what Brook is trying to do against Triple G. Tszyu was at the end of his career at the time he fought Hatton. Tszyu had injury problems, inactivity issues, and he had to lose a lot of weight to get down to the 140lb limit.

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Hatton doubts Brook can beat Golovkin

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(Photo credit: Amanda Westcott/SHOWTIME) By Patrick McHugh: Former two division world champion Ricky Hatton believes that welterweight Kell Brook will do well for a few rounds in his title challenge against IBF/IBO/WBA/WBC middleweight champion Gennady “GGG” Golovkin (35-0 32 KOs) in their fight on September 10, but ultimately, Golovkin’s size, power and punching ability will be too much for Brook.

Hatton doesn’t blame Brook for taking the shot against Golovkin, because it’s such a big payday for him. Hatton notes that the top guys in the 147lb division didn’t want any part of fighting Brook, so he had to do something to get a big fight. The parade was passing Brook by and he was watching his career move forward without him being able to get any of the big career defining fights.

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Hatton thinks Khan can beat Canelo

hatton939By Scott Gilfoid: While most boxing fans believe Amir Khan (31-3, 19 KOs) is up the creek without a paddle in his fight next month against the much heavier, stronger, younger and arguably more talented WBC middleweight champion Saul “Canelo” Alvarez (46-1-1, 32 KOs) in their scheduled fight on May 7, former two division world champion Ricky “Hitman” Hatton believes that the 29-year-old Khan has the style to defeat Canelo.

Hatton thinks that if Khan can punch, move, throw combinations and not stand still for any length of time, he could pull off the upset. However, Hatton acknowledges that the 25-year-old Canelo has gotten a lot better since losing to Floyd Mayweather Jr. three years ago in 2016, and he feels it’s going to be a real hard task for Khan to beat Canelo.

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The Best British fights we never saw

calzaghe445574By Gav Duthie: After another top performance by Kell Brook questions were regarding who he fights next. Amir Khan is out for the time being as he faces Saul “Canelo” Alvarez and there is a good chance we will never see this fight. Here are some of the other British contests we missed out on over the years.

Ricky Hatton v Junior Witter

Some fights you hope can be made, this one should have been made. On occasion fans are looking for one fighter to move up a weight class (E.g McCullouch to fight Hamed) or take a fight early in their career when they may not be ready (Groves v Froch) but this fight was simple. There was a time when Hatton and Witter could have fought in a unification bout at light welterweight.

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