By Scott Gilfoid: In an article at GQ-magazine, former IBF/WBC/WBO super middleweight champion gives his thoughts on the careers of Ricky Hatton and World Boxing Association heavyweight champion David Haye. Speaking about Hatton, who was recently stopped in the 2nd round by Manny Pacquiao last May, Calzaghe says “I think Ricky Hatton should quit. No fighter wants to retire on the back of a bad loss, but Ricky got beat up pretty bad by Mayweather Jr., so I don’t think he should fight again.”
Well, there are more than a few people who would likely disagree with Calzaghe about this. If Hatton wants to compete, then he should do it and not let other people’s opinion change his mind about it. Calzaghe appeared to have ended his career far too early for the likes of me, and I think he retired because he didn’t want to risk losing for the first time. There’s nothing wrong with a fighter being beaten. Hatton has only been beaten by Mayweather and Pacquiao during his career.
These are two of the best fighters in the sport. It isn’t as if Hatton is getting pummeled by every fighter in the light welterweight division. Hatton can still be successful and make good money by fighting guys like Juan Manuel Marquez, Amir Khan or even Timothy Bradley if he wants. And it wouldn’t matter to me if Hatton was beaten by one or all of them.
As long as he’s putting on a good show and likes competing against the best fighters. He shouldn’t worry about what might happen, because if Hatton was to hang up his gloves at this point, he would never know whether he still had anything left or not. And even if he doesn’t have much left, he can still compete and still entertain his fans. He doesn’t need to quit.
Calzaghe seems to have a lot of positive praise for heavyweight David Haye. “David Haye fought the fight he had to fight with [Nikolay] Valuev. He’s a big lump. To go to Germany and pull that off is a brilliant win for him.” You can look at it like that or you can look at Haye’s win against Valuev in another way. Haye fought as if he was scared, like he was afraid to get hit by Valuev. In the end Haye won the fight by a 12 round majority decision, but in winning the fight Haye didn’t live up to the expectations that many people had for him.
Haye also didn’t fight well enough to make one think that he’ll be able to hold down the WBA title for more than one or two fights, depending on how carefully he’s matched. If Valuev had been facing Wladimir or Vitali Klitschko last November instead of Haye, I find it hard to imagine that they would fight tentatively against the light hitting Valuev.
On the contrary, I think both Klitschko brothers would literally rip Valuev’s head off with power shots and end things very quickly if they were to fight him. It wouldn’t even be a competitive fight. This is important because Haye says he wants to fight one or both of the Klitschko brothers in the near future. Based on how Haye looked against Valuev, I wouldn’t give him any chance at beating either of the Klitschko brothers.
I don’t consider Haye’s win over the 36-year-old Valuev as a “brilliant win.” It looked less impressive to me than the performance by 46-year-old Evander Holyfield had against Valuev a year older in Switzerland. Holyfield lost despite dominating most of the fight against Valuev. Holyfield looked more impressive than Haye did even though Holyfield is of advanced age.
Calzaghe says “I think Haye will knock out John Ruiz when he boxes him and that will set him up for a big fight against one of the Klitschko brothers.” I agree that Haye will probably beat Ruiz, but not by a knockout. I think he’ll win another close questionable decision. It won’t be pretty, and some people might think it’s a home town decision because the fight will be taking place in UK. That’s my prediction. But I totally disagree with Calzaghe thinking that Haye will fight one of the Klitschko brothers next.
I don’t see that happening. I think Haye is going to milk his title and go after an old 45-year-old Bernard Hopkins next rather than risk getting destroyed by the Klitschko brothers. After Hopkins is out of the way, I see Haye either fighting a rematch with Valuev or taking on the winner of the Kali Meehan vs. Ruslan Chagaev bout. The Klitschko brothers will probably be name dropped by Haye every now and then, but I don’t see him fighting either of those guys until maybe 2011, if at all.
Still talking about the Klitschko brothers, Calzaghe says “They’re more mobile, and they can punch, but Haye can punch too. Wladimir Klitschko’s been down a few times, so has Haye. I think it would be a really exciting fight and Haye can win if he catches him on the chin and knocks him out.” Notice how Calzaghe doesn’t mention Vitali Klitschko? I assume he doesn’t think that Haye can beat the 38-year-old Vitali. The fact he didn’t mention Vitali makes me believe that he thinks Haye couldn’t beat him. But as far as Wladimir goes, I think Haye would have about as much of a chance of beating him as Chagaev did recently in his 9th round stoppage loss.
Haye is too short at 6’3”, doesn’t have the arm length or the jab needed to set up his wild haymaker shots. Haye would likely be destroyed if he threw his amateurish looking pot shots against Wladimir, and he doesn’t have the chin needed to wade through the kinds of power shots that Wladimir would be throwing at him. As such, I think Calzaghe is way off with Haye beating Wladimir.
I think Haye can beat some heavyweights in the top 15. If he’s real careful, I think he can squeak by with a controversial decision against Ruiz next month on April 3rd. If Haye does out trying to punch Ruiz out, I see Haye being taken out like he was against 40-year-old Carl Thompson in the past. But besides that, I see most of the top 15 fighters beating Haye in the WBA. I think he could maybe beat guys like Manuel Charr, David Rodriguez, and Rene Dettweiler. But the other heavyweights, I see it as a toss-up as to whether Haye can escape the fight in one piece without being knocked out.
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