By Liam Santiago: If more top boxers had the same attitude towards the sport as Ricky Hatton, it would not be in the state it is. Boxing is constantly losing fans to UFC, mainly as a result of the best not fighting the best. Of course, Hatton is an exception. He has constantly pushed himself to fight the best fighters including Mayweather and Pacquiao.
The big punching people champion, Hatton made his greatest ever achievement when he made ring warrior and legend, Kostya Tszyu retire on his stool. As a boxing expert, I understand that doing that takes some doing. Hatton also knocked out Mexican warrior Castillo in the fourth round with a gut busting body punch and gave his number two contender Paul Malignaggi a boxing lesson and stopped him, which Miguel Cotto failed to do.
Boxing is constantly losing fans, especially in Britain. There is very rarely a boxing event on television that you can view apart from Hatton, Haye, Khan and the undercards of them three. David Haye has not fought in a very long time due to constant disputes over money. Amir Khan has recently been crowned a world champion by beating slow, basic plodder, Andriy Kotelnik. Khan now plans on doing some ‘legend bashing’, in other words, beating the likes of Morales and Barrera again. Hatton however, constantly fights the greatest. He called Mayweather out and went up a division to fight him. After that defeat he did not take the Amir Khan route and fanny around the edges. What did he do? He went after Manny Pacquiao.
In harsh times for boxing in Britain, such as these, Hatton is exactly the type of guy that keeps the sport alive. He was initially the one to revitalize British boxing and he is the one to save it. Who wants to see Khan beat Morales? Or hear about Haye pulling out again due to money? We know if Hatton comes back he will fight the very best, which is more than we can say for Amir Khan.
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