By Tim Royner: Ricky Hatton questions whether former heavyweight champion Tyson Fury (25-0, 18 KOs) has done permanent damage to his boxing career with weight gain and 2 ½ years of inactivity. Former 2 division world champion Hatton feels that with excess weight that the 29-year-old Fury has put on and his years of comfortable living and inactivity, it could be too late for to undo all that and make a successful comeback.
By Scott Gilfoid: Ricky Hatton says he thinks the Amir ‘King’ Khan vs. Kell ‘Special K’ Brook fight is a 50-50 affair that could go either way. Hatton, a retired former 2 division world belt holder, sees Brook (36-2, 25 KOs) and Khan (31-4, 19 KOs) in the same position with their deflated careers that appear to be going nowhere fast.
By Jeff Aranow: The pounds are flying off former heavyweight champion Tyson Fury (25-0, 18 KOs) with him training with Ricky Hatton in making a comeback after 2 years out of the ring. Fury has lost 42 pounds, according to Hatton, and he wants to lose another 56 pounds before he fights next year.
By Scott Gilfoid: Judging by a photo this week taken at Ricky Hatton’s boxing gym, Tyson Fury has a long ways to go before he can reach optimal conditioning needed for him to have a chance to find success in his comeback to the sport.
By Allan Fox: Ricky Hatton is high on Saul “Canelo” Alvarez right now and leaning in his direction to do the job on middleweight champion Gennady “GGG” Golovkin on September 16. Hatton, a former two division world champion, says he keeps changing his mind about the Canelo-GGG fight.
By Rob Blakeman: Ricky Hatton was the greatest best piece of luck his trainer Billy Graham ever had, let’s be honest. Hatton had a natural aggression and a certain amount of athleticism and in all probability would have done well with any trainer. But I wonder how good he might have been if he had been with someone who taught the basic fundamentals of boxing from the start?
By the time I was brought in as conditioning coach for Hatton in late 2000 he already had some very bad habits which his trainer not only indulged but practically encouraged-and they weren’t only in boxing technique. Graham would give Hatton days off training when he was hung over-heck, they even got drunk together sometimes! Hatton at this embryonic point in his career really needed a firm figure of discipline in his life-not an enabler.
Maybe even worse than this was the lack of progressive and fundamental boxing training. I remember going to the Manchester England gym with my then training partner Richie Woodhall, to watch Hatton train.
By Scott Gilfoid: Trainer Ricky Hatton believes that his fighter Kiryl Relikh (21-1, 19 KOs) did enough to deserve a narrow 12 round unanimous decision against WBA World 140lb champion Ricky Burns (41-5-1, 14 KOs) last Saturday night at the SSE Hydro in Glasgow, Scotland. Like a lot of boxing fans, Hatton was absolutely shocked at the dreadful scores handed down by the three judges that worked the fight.
Here are the score from the three judges: Raul Caiz Sr.116-112, Jesus Cova 118-110, and Terry O’Connor 116-112. Here is the score from Gilfoid: 112-112 for Relikh. With the blown call on the knockdown that occurred in the 12th round in which Burns was dropped, I would have had my score even wider for Relikh, but the referee Howard John Foster missed the knockdown.
By Scott Gilfoid: If trainer Ricky Hatton gets his wish, unbeaten #1 WBA challenger Kiryl Relikh (21-0, 19 KOs) will send WBA World light welterweight champion Ricky Burns (40-5-1, 14 KOs) skittering down to defeat tonight in their match at The SSE Hydro in Glasgow, Scotland. Hatton thinks the 26-year-old Relikh will break some hearts tonight by beating the hometown fighter Burns. Relikh is a NATURAL light welterweight unlike Burns, who has slowly eaten his way into the division. Power-wise, Burns is more of a super featherweight. He doesn’t have a light welterweight frame like Relikh.
Hatton just hopes that after Relikh beats Burns, he’ll be able to keep his many fans in Scotland. Relikh has the punching power, size and the youth to whip Burns like Dejan Zlaticanin did two years ago in 2014. The only question is does Relikh have the boxing skills and the talent to do the job.
By Scott Gilfoid: Ricky Hatton is picking WBA World lightweight champion Anthony Crolla (31-4-3, 13 KOs) to successfully defend his WBA title on Saturday night against challenger Jorge Linares (40-3, 27 KOs) at the Manchester Arena in Manchester, UK. Hatton doesn’t really say why he thinks the 29-year-old Crolla will win the fight other than him being a good body puncher.
Of course, the most obvious reason why you have to go with Crolla as the winner is because the fight is taking place in the UK. Having seen Crolla’s first fight against Darleys Perez, and his fights against Derry Mathews, and Gavin Rees, I think Crolla has been very, very lucky when it comes to the scoring of his fights. I had Crolla losing to Perez in their first fight, even with the referee taking points off from Perez in consecutive rounds in the 11th and 12th rounds. In my scoring, I had Crolla losing his second fight against Derry Mathews and in his fight against Gavin Rees.
By Scott Gilfoid: Former two division world champion Ricky Hatton says IBF/IBO/WBA/WBC middleweight champion Gennady “GGG” Golovkin is on the verge of facing his toughest test of his 10-year pro career this Saturday night on September 10 against Britain’s Kell Brook (36-0, 25 KOs) at the O2 Arena in London, England.
Hatton isn’t ruling out a victory for Brook in this fight, but he understands that it’s going to be awfully difficult for him to do that given how hard Golovkin punches. However, Hatton brings up the example of his own win over then 35-year-old Kostya Tszyu in 2005 as a case that Brook could pull off the upset.
There are some differences though between what Hatton accomplished and what Brook is trying to do against Triple G. Tszyu was at the end of his career at the time he fought Hatton. Tszyu had injury problems, inactivity issues, and he had to lose a lot of weight to get down to the 140lb limit.