By Scott Gilfoid: IBF super middleweight champion Carl Froch chimed in with his own 2 cents about 33-year-old Ricky Hatton’s comeback fight on November 24th by saying he doesn’t think Hatton should do it, although Froch doesn’t really come out and say why not point blank.
Froch told the BBC Radio 5 “I think he should stay retired…He doesn’t live the life between fights. I’m a friend of Ricky Hatton’s, I think he’s great but if I was in his position I wouldn’t fight.”
Well I guess that’s good enough reason for Froch wanting Hatton to stay retired. I think Hatton would be in trouble with this rematch even if had been living a spartan lifestyle these past three years since he last fought. He was always someone that took a lot of punishment to the head with his face first style of fighting, and he never really all that impressive. I saw Hatton as a little wrestler type that made his name for the most part with his victories over past their prime fighters Kostya Tszyu and Jose Luis Castillo. Those were probably Hatton’s biggest wins of his career. The thing of it is I don’t think Hatton would have beaten the 35-year-old Tszyu if the fight had taken place in the United States or Australia with a referee that controls the wrestling on the inside stuff that Hatton was doing in the Tszyu fight.
Prolonged wrestling round after round likely wouldn’t have been allowed in the U.S with the referees that I’ve seen. Whenever the referee did break the action in the Hatton-Tszyu fight, Tszyu would drill Hatton in the head and show his superiority of fistic skills. I’ve seen the fight at least 100 times and the conclusion that I got from the fight was that Hatton wouldn’t have been able to beat Tszyu if he had to actually fight him and not grapple with him on the inside.
So basically Hatton would have problems making his comeback regardless of how he lived. Heck, Hatton would likely have huge problems if he had continued to fight from 2009 until now without retiring. The talent is so good at light welterweight and welterweight that I don’t see where Hatton would have a place in those two divisions aside from perhaps a gatekeeper type function.
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