By Scott Gilfoid: In an interview today on Sky Sports, Ricky Hatton seemed to be thinking beyond his fight with Manny Pacquiao on May 2nd, saying “There’s only one thing left to achieve, and that’s to become the pound for pound top fighter in the world. And with hard work and perseverance, and believing I’m myself, I think I can get there.” Also, Hatton spoke of himself as the best 10 pound fighter (140 pounds) in the world, ignoring the fact that he’s still not fought Junior Witter and Timothy Bradley, as well as a few other top fighters in the light welterweight division.
First of all, I don’t think it’s physically possible for Hatton to ever become the top pound for pound fighter in all of boxing, because his boxing skills pale compared to other fighters in boxing, like Pacquiao, Ivan Calderon, Chad Dawson, Mikkel Kessler, Nate Campbell and many others. In comparing Hatton to them, they seem like experts whereas Hatton is more crude, primitive and more of a one-dimensional fighter.
So right off the bat, I think it’s ludicrous for Hatton to even consider wanting to be a pound for pound top fighter because he’s not gifted in that way. It’s like a school boy struggling with fractions talking about tackling Calculus within a short time. Yeah, right.
Even if Hatton were to be somehow crowned as the top Pound-For-Pound fighter in boxing, I would look harshly at the organization that gave him such a title. It would be like People magazine crowning some aging male star and bestowing upon them as the world’s most attractive star.
In this case, it’s even worse because Hatton isn’t a fighter known for his refined boxing skills and instead often wins by clinching and out-wrestling his opponents on the inside. It’s often painful to watch, proving little other than that Hatton is the better wrestler on the inside.
If Hatton considers himself as the best 10 stone fighter (light welterweight), he needs to prove because his credentials at that weight have grown stale. Beating an old Tszyu in dull clinch-plagued fight in 2005 doesn’t hold any relevance anymore.
That was four years ago and that’s an incredibly long time in boxing. The game has moved forward, and the stars like Bradley, Ricardo Torres, Kentall Holt, Andreas Kotelnik, and Junior Witter are the top fighters in the light welterweight division now. For Hatton to claim that he’s better than them without having faced any of them seems ridiculous.
I see them all beating Hatton, except for possibly Kotelnik. Hatton has struggled since getting his lights turned out by Floyd Mayweather Jr. in 2007, looking bad against Juan Lazcano. Taking on Paulie Malignaggi instead of Witter, Holt and Bradley seemed rather strange to me.
Why fight him when those other fighters are considered more dangerous? For me, it seems that Hatton is avoiding them, yet still considering himself as the top guy without the fights behind him in recent years to give himself that title.
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