By Aaron Klein: It seems as if WBC Junior welterweight champion Junior Witter has been calling out Ricky Hatton, although nothing that Witter has said has increased his chances at landing a fight with him. Most recently, Hatton has reportedly said he’d been thinking of fighting Witter until he made a comment to him at the BBC Sports Personality of the Year Awards in Birmingham, telling him “One day.” From that one comment, Hatton intimated that Witter had blown his chance at fighting him.
It seems rather odd that Hatton would use such a minor comment as that for a reason not to fight Witter, for that kind of banter is common for fighters. Really, that seems mostly harmless compared to most fighters, who often go to the extreme in calling out opponents.
It’s not like Hatton won’t be getting more of that in the future from other fighters. However, by suggesting that Witter has blown his chance at fighting him, it seems that Hatton is hurting himself more than Witter. The public want the fight, as does Witter, and by seeing Witter constantly calling Hatton out for a fight and getting only excuses such as this, it gives the appearance that Hatton his afraid to fight Witter. In the end, it may not hurt Hatton for fans that don’t keep up with boxing, but with knowledgeable fans that follow boxing, it would seem to diminish Hatton in their eyes.
It’s hard to put it out of your mind when you see Hatton turning down Witter, and then signing on with a lesser fighter like Juan Lazcano. Not that Juan’s a bad fighter, but he’s not in the class of Witter, perhaps not even close. Certainly, Hatton can ignore Witter forever and still do quite well without him. Floyd Mayweather Jr., who made mincemeat of Hatton in their December fight, it rumored to be interested in a sequel to their fight, and it would likely mean another huge multi-million dollar pay day for Hatton.
Nothing would change, of course, from last time out. Hatton wouldn’t stand a chance at winning, mind you, and it would clearly help him out financially, yet it wouldn’t solve his problem of proving himself against the best in his own weight division. That’s something that Hatton needs to do I think in order to prevent his career from withering. As if now, he seems to be mostly popular on what he did in 2005 with his win over Kostya Tszyu.
Aside from that win, Hatton has down next to nothing to increase his value as a fighter in the light welterweight division. A win over a faded Jose Luis Castillo did little to raise Hatton’s worth as a fighter other than to show that he can beat smaller fighters that are in the twilight of their career. Even if Hatton were to fight another dozen or so faded fighters, it wouldn’t be equal to the respect he’d get by fighting Witter. Win or lose, Hatton would be better off for having fought him. At least he wouldn’t have to wear the tag of a fighter that lacked the nerve to take on the best possible opponent.