By Scott Gilfoid: I think the last dying light went out of Ricky Hatton’s career with his 2nd round destruction by Manny Pacquiao on May 2nd. The left hand that Pacquiao planted Hatton with did more than just knock him out, it looks to have knocked out the last bit of spark that Hatton had left in his body and thereby killed his desire to compete in the sport again.
Since that defeat, Hatton reminds me of a gun shy fighter that is still haunted by their defeat and can’t get it out of their heads. It was a bad knockout, for sure, but not something that should have killed Hatton’s career if he still had the drive and self belief needed to carry on.
I do expect Hatton come back, though, at some point in the future, but he’s not doing himself any favors by staying out of the sport for very long. If this wasn’t Hatton, I might not feel the same way. But with Hatton, when he’s not fighting, he tends blow up in weight by overeating and drinking, and going way overboard with each.
There’s a point of no return if Hatton gets too fat and ages himself too much with food and drink. Taking off 20 to 30 pounds of fat is one thing, but if Hatton balloons up beyond that, I don’t see how he could take off the weight and still fight effectively. I’m not even talking about the physical aging that takes place when you suck down a six pack or more a day of beer. That’s not a good idea for a professional athlete to do.
Let’s say Hatton does come back, will he be effective enough to beat any of the top fighters in the light welterweight division? That is the big question. Aside from the glass-jawed Amir Khan, who Hatton has hinted about possibly fighting in the future, I don’t know that Hatton could beat the other top light welterweights like Timothy Bradley, Marcos Maidana or Devon Alexander. Even worse, I don’t even think Hatton would try to fight them. He’s riding so high after getting big bucks in fights against Floyd Mayweather Jr. and Pacquiao, that I doubt Hatton would even consider fighting one of those fighters.
That effectively narrows Hatton’s choices if his whole hang-up is about getting the huge payday at the expense of a quality opponent. Khan might bring in a lot more money for Hatton than say fights against Alexander, Bradley or Marcos, but that doesn’t mean that Khan is the best opponent for Hatton to fight if he is considering fighting beyond one last fight.
If Hatton is serious about continuing his career, he’s going to have to prove that he can beat the likes of Maidana, Bradley or Alexander if he wants to stay relevant in the division. Right now, I can’t say that he could beat any of those fighters, and possibly not even Khan.
Unless Hatton improves over the way he looked against Pacquiao, I think Hatton will take a beating for the remainder of his career unless he selects exclusively easy fights from here on out. I think Hatton could beat weak punchers like Paulie Malignaggi and Julio Diaz, but anyone above that is probably going to knock Hatton out because his punch resistance appears to have diminished somewhat.
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