By William Mackay: Former light welterweight and welterweight champion Ricky Hatton (45-2, 32 KO’s) says he still doesn’t feel the hunger to restart his stalled boxing career. It’s been 11 months since the 31-year-old Hatton was brutally knocked out in the 2nd round by Manny Pacquiao in May 2009, and instead of rebounding from the loss and learning from it, Hatton has ballooned up in weight and now looks much like a short 5’7” cruiserweight with a generous coat of fat on him.
Hatton says in an interview with Sky Sports, “I don’t mind getting beaten by Manny Pacquiao, Floyd Mayweather Jr. and people like that, but I’d hate to go into training camp with my heart not fully in it and risk getting beaten by somebody who shouldn’t be beating me. So until that hunger comes back, that fire in the belly, that is when I will make my decision.” One of the problems that is likely holding Hatton back is that he made a lot of money in the Pacquiao fight, enough to last him the rest of his life unless he throws his money away.
It’s often hard for people to continue to work hard after making millions of dollars. Boxing is even a tougher profession than others, because it involves painful exercise and training. Hatton has let himself go physically to the point where it would likely take many months of backbreaking training to melt off all the fat that he’s put on his short frame. With that kind of fat, it’s best to take it off slowly rather than all at once, because it could leave Hatton a weak shell by the time he gets rid of it all – if he ever can.
One problem that Hatton seems to have is that he plans on fighting a top fighter when he does come back. Rather than taking on a softer touch so that he can build his confidence back up and ease back into the sport, Hatton says wants to take on a world class fighter. That’s not how it’s usually done. When a fighter has been badly knocked out like Hatton, they are put in with softer opposition to build up their confidence, give them a break from hard fights and see where their at in terms of being able to take punishment.
With Hatton, it’s even more complicated because of the massive amount of weight that he’s put in the past year. Taking that kind of blubber off is more than likely going to leave Hatton feeling weak. That might not matter if he’s put in with a soft opponent, but he wants the best and that’s not a good thing. Hatton needs to take it slow and select some weaker opponents. Recently, Erik Morales, the former featherweight champion, was mentioned as a possible opponent for Hatton. I think that would be an excellent choice. Morales looked horrible in his first fight coming off of a three year retirement. He was slower, threw few punches, lacked power and his midsection had visible fat around it. Hatton would likely easily win that fight and hopefully get his confidence back.
Hatton says “One day I might come in the gym and say ‘lets’ give it a go.’ I’m enjoying my time seeing my mates and my fighters, and my brother winning the European title the other week…It’s only been 10 months since the [Pacquiao] fight. I wouldn’t really call that retirement. But as any other will tell you, you have got to have that hunger to carry on with the training, and until that comes back, I’m going to continue what I’m doing.”
The problem is the longer a fighter stays out of the sport, the harder it will be to get back into shape any be able to find the success that they once had. Heavyweights are the exception somewhat if the fighter is big, powerful in the George Foreman and Vitali Klitschko mode. Hatton isn’t big, and wasn’t a huge puncher. He was a fighter that got over with a high work rate and an inside game that was top notch. He’s probably not the type of fighter that will be able to just pick the sport back up and succeed as he did before unless he goes into gradually.
Speaking of Morales, Hatton says “It’s been mentioned, it can only have been mentioned by Golden Boy and it has not been mentioned to me. I was shocked as everybody else when I heard it. The fight’s not been offered to me, so I don’t know what’s more I can say about it.” That sounds interesting. Maybe Hatton would come back for a fight against Morales. That would be an easy fight for Hatton judging by how bad Morales looked in beating Jose Alfaro on March 27th. I had Alfaro winning easily by eight rounds to four.
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