By Michael Lieberman: Maybe the best British fighter ever, Ricky Hatton (45-1, 32 KOs) is held in high esteem on that tiny island and has dominated much of the news from that area for the past four or so years. He’s done his job admirably, beating some decent fighters during his 11 year professional career. However, I don’t know if it’s just me or what, but when I look at Hatton’s record, I don’t see much substance there.
In fact, I see next to no quality opposition until 2005 when Hatton beat Kostya Tszyu by a 11th round TKO. The win, maybe the best of Hatton’s career, isn’t quite so impressive when you factor in that it came at the very end of the then 36-year-old Tszyu’s career.
If that doesn’t jump out at you, then try to imagine the now 30-year-old Hatton six years older than he is now, taking on a young 27-year-old Tszyu. You tell me, do you honestly think Hatton could beat a 27-year-old Tszyu? I don’t. Hatton would probably be destroyed in a few rounds and made to look like an old man in the process, yet Tszyu, at the end of his career, was able to fight Hatton almost evenly until fading in the last few rounds and ending up getting stopped.
Okay, so we can take away the win over Tszyu from Hatton’s record and not count it, because of the age of Tszyu at the time.
Similarly, Hatton’s 4th round stoppage win over former lightweight champion Jose Luis Castillo in 2007 doesn’t really impress either. At the time that Hatton fought Castillo, Jose was 34-years-old, and had just moved up in weight from the lightweight division after having countless wars against Diego Corrales, Joel Casamayor, and Floyd Mayweather Jr., and clearly wasn’t the same fighter he was years earlier.
The combination of the added weight, the wars and the age had the effect of dulling Castillo’s once incredible boxing skills, making him susceptible to stoppage by Hatton. As a result, I don’t count the win as being an impressive feat given those factors.
In fact, I see it more along the same lines as Joe Calzaghe’s recent win over the 39-year-old Roy Jones Jr. It’s a name on a resume, but not the same thing as if Calzaghe had beaten a prime Jones, because frankly, I think Calzaghe would have been embarrassed by a younger Jones and beaten to a pulp without laying a glove on him.
Hatton’s 12-round decision over former light welterweight champion Vince Phillips in 2003, also isn’t that big of a deal, given the fact that Phillips was then 40-years-old, and clearly the same fighter he had been six years earlier when he was the IBF light welterweight champion. Beating Phillips was good, but it’s hard to get enthused about a 25-year-old fighter like Hatton beating a 40-year-old ex-champion like Phillips.
Again, if this fight were to have had any value, then it should have taken place when the two fighters were of similar ages. They weren’t and by the time that Hatton met up with Phillips, Vince was on the downward slope in his career.
Hatton’s 12-round decision win over Juan Lazcano wasn’t impressive either, because Hatton was hurt badly in the fight, getting tagged with a big left hook in the 8th and appearing on the verge of being stopped when the referee stopped the action to give Lazcano a warning about what, I have no idea.
Hatton then took this opportunity to have his shoelaces tied, giving himself more time to recover. By the time the action resumed, Hatton had recovered completely and went on to win the fight. Lazcano, a good fighter, but more of a journeyman than a true title contender, yet he had Hatton hurt and who knows what might have happened if the referee hadn’t interrupted the action to give a warning to Lazcano and let Hatton have his shoes tied.
I’ve never seen a fighter who was badly hurt in a fight be allowed to have their shoelaces tied. Can you imagine that flying in America? A fighter gets hurt, points to his shoes and the referee stops the action and lets them take off 20 to 30 seconds to have their shoelaces tied. Believe me, it wouldn’t happen.
Hatton would have likely been in serious trouble if he tried to have his shoelaces tied if he were to get hurt in a fight in the United States. The referee would probably look at him, shrug his head as to say, ‘too bad, tell it to someone that cares.’
Beating Paulie Malignaggi, a former IBF light welterweight champion, is also not that impressive, because Malignaggi had looked terrible in recent fights against Lovemore N’dou and Herman Ngoudjo, appearing to lose both of them but winning them somehow. More of a finesse fighter, Malignaggi had no power to compete with Hatton, and as most people expected, he lost badly to Hatton.
For many people, they had no idea why Hatton chose to fight Malignaggi, because there was no title belt involved in the fight aside from the lowly IBO belt, making the fight a curiosity. Instead of going after Timothy Bradley, the WBC light welterweight champion, and the fight considered by many experts to be the best fighter in the division, Hatton chose Malignaggi without a title on the line. I wonder why?
As for Hatton’s best opponent of his career, Floyd Mayweather Jr., Hatton was destroyed by him in an embarrassing 10th round stoppage in 2007. It’s a good fight to have on Hatton’s resume, but it matters little because he was handled so easily by Mayweather and beaten.
The remainder of Hatton’s resume, as far as I’m concerned, has even worse substance than the fighters that I’ve mentioned above. Missing names like Kendall Holt, Bradley, Junior Witter, Ricardo Torres, Andreas Kotelnik, Devon Alexander, and Marcos Maindana. If it was me, I would have been going after those names instead of opponents like Malignaggi, Juan Urango, Lazcano and Luis Collazo.
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