By Sean McDaniel: In looking over the light welterweight and welterweight divisions, I see far too many quality fighters for Ricky Hatton to find much success against unless he pretty much cherry picks his way through them. It’s like a mind field for the 30-year-old Hatton, because there are so many good fighters with either a lot of power or slick boxing skills and fast hands.
Right now, I suspect that Hatton would have problems against quick/slick fighters and those with a ton of power. This is why I think it’s a good idea that Hatton come back – if he does decide to continue his boxing career – as a lightweight rather than a light welterweight or welterweight.
Hatton’s chin appears to have been effected by his knockout loss to Floyd Mayweather Jr. in December 2007, and with his recent 2nd round knockout defeat by Manny Pacquiao, one where Hatton was out cold for three minutes, his ability to take punishment probably deteriorated even more.
That’s not good news for Hatton, because the light welterweight division is filled with boxer/punchers like Junior Witter, Timothy Bradley, Kendall Holt, Devon Alexander and Marcos Maidana, and I don’t think the Hatton would come close to beating any of them given his poor performances against Mayweather, Juan Lazcano and Pacquiao.
However, that doesn’t mean the end for Hatton, because he can always trim off an extra five pounds of muscle/fat and get down to 135 so that could compete at lightweight. At that weight class, Hatton would be dealing with the likes of Edwin Valero, Juan Manuel Marquez, Paulus Moses, Marco Antonio Barrera, Joel Casamayor, Anthony Peterson, Ali Funeka, Michael Katsidis and Vicente Escobedo.
I would give Hatton an excellent chance of beating most but not all of them, especially if Hatton puts on a lot of weight after the weigh in. Hatton would likely be able to simply over power fighters like Katsidis, Escobedo, Casamayor, Barrera, and Funeka through sheer size alone.
However, Valero, Marquez and Peterson would be tougher to crack because of their skills. But, just being able to beat most of them would be a good thing for Hatton, because it would pretty much extend his career by a few years in theory.
It goes without saying that Valero would be a dangerous opponent for Hatton due to Ricky’s recent knockout losses, and it would probably be wise for Hatton to avoid fighting Valero at all costs. The good thing is Hatton could easily avoid Valero yet still have lots of other popular options for him to fight.
I actually think Hatton would have better opponents at lightweight than he would at light welterweight, because there’s bigger named fighters at lightweight compared to at light welterweight, which is kind of sparse in terms of notable fighters.
The most important thing, though, is that Hatton would be able to compete without having to worry as much about being knocked out again, because Hatton would be considered to be the big bull on the block due to his bigger frame and bigger punch.
Of course, it wouldn’t be seen in a favorable light by other fighters and boxing fans if Hatton is seem moving down in weight, but who cases? Just as long as Hatton is able to extend his career and stop being knocked out, that’s all that matters.
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