By Chris Williams: If you’re like a lot of boxing fans, you’re wondering what is taking Ricky Hatton so long to make a decision about his career. It seems pretty cut and dried to me. He either wants to retire and walk away from countless millions or he decides to keep fighting and make big bucks in doing so. Whatever the case, Hatton needs to make a decision soon if he plans on making a lot of money in the sport.
Hatton can’t afford to sit around on his backside eating and drinking anything he wants, and getting as fat as a pig. The time for Hatton to come back is now. Seriously, there isn’t a better time for Hatton to come back than right now. The reason is simple. Here you have a perfect opponent in Juan Diaz just sitting there waiting to be beaten up for an easy payday.
Diaz is like a sitting duck at an penny arcade with a big bulls eye sitting on him waiting to be knocked over. He’s perfect for Hatton to fight and just what Hatton needs to make some of the fans forget about his loss to Manny Pacquiao.
I don’t know what is keeping Hatton from getting back in the ring. It couldn’t have been that bad of a loss, could it? I always thought that Hatton was a tough fighter and would never let a loss mess him up mentally, but maybe I was wrong.
Besides Diaz, there’s Amir Khan who would be perfect for Hatton as well. Khan is vulnerable against big punchers and would likely have serious troubles against a fighter like Hatton. Khan is someone that Hatton needs to fight because he looks like a media creation rather than the real McCoy.
Hatton could be the second fighter that exposes Khan. And the best part is that Hatton would get well paid for doing so. The longer Hatton waits to take a fight with Khan the more likely someone else gets to Khan first and knocks him into next year.
I don’t know if Hatton is afraid to get knocked out or not, but he needed worry about that kind of thing against Khan. Freddie Roach, Khan’s trainer, has Amir fighting defensely and not sitting down on his punches like he used to. In effect, Roach has made Khan into feather fisted fighter who moves continuously and hence is unable to get any power on his shots.
Even when Khan does throw flurries nowadays, they’re more like slaps than power shots. Certainly, Hatton could take those kinds of shots without dropping for the ten count, can’t he? Hatton could take Khan’s slaps all night long I’m willing to bet and give Khan a dose of his old power. In a way, Hatton would be doing us a favor by giving Khan a beating and relieving him of his title. The benefit is that there would be one less paper champion in boxing.
The longer Hatton waits to make his comeback, the better chance he’s going to fail miserably. Fighters in the lighter weight classes like Hatton can’t afford to sit out for long because they lose their quickness very rapidly. A heavyweight can stay idle for a spell and not be hurt badly because it’s a divisions based on strength and power rather than speed. Hatton will have problems if he sits out of the sport for a year, especially if he gains a ton of weight that he has to take off when he does decide to come back.
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