by David P. Greisman
He is short and stocky, with a scarcity of style, and he has a propensity to bleed, often donning a crimson mask for the duration of his bouts, once going eleven rounds, two minutes and forty-five seconds with a gushing gash over his left eye. He owns scar tissue like Imelda Marcos owned shoes.
He has, in acquiring his forty wins and thirty knockouts, been assisted by a tendency to foul and get away with it, an ability to fight his fight, with his referees, in his hometown.
Nevertheless, with this weekend’s ninth round knockout of Carlos Maussa, he – Ricky Hatton – is the unified IBF and WBA junior welterweight champion, and, sanctioning bodies aside, the division’s true top dog.
After alighting as a blip on the radar years ago, Hatton has since crashed the 140-lb. scene with a hard-hitting, rough-and-tumble attitude, unleashing round after round of power punches, demonstrating that he is a combustible ball of unceasing energy, and similarly a warrior of crowd-pleasing synergy, a whole greater than the sum of his parts.
Before the first bell rings, Hatton’s height and reach set him at an immediate disadvantage against taller, rangier foes, making it necessary for the Mancunian to develop a game plan centered around bulling his way inside, mauling his opponents against the ropes and wearing their defenses down while opening up target areas for his heavy hands.
Yet once inside the ropes, attrition is achieved with the aid of Hatton’s superior conditioning, endurance that allows unending aggression, and the 27-year-old pugilist does his job with youthful exuberance, working the full three minutes of each and every round.
Never mind if, while compiling his undefeated record, he has occasionally constructed a victory with methods beyond sledgehammer shots to the body and forceful follow-ups to the head, incorporating holding and hitting, punching on the break, pulling down on the neck and applying a headlock. Hatton can be momentarily excused, as he is consistently relentless and only occasionally John Ruiz.
For if Ruiz’s habits are necessitated by caution, a survival instinct reaction to his embarrassing nineteen-second knockout loss to David Tua in 1996, then Hatton’s eccentricities are a stifling stratagem, tit for tat trading that ensures that a wrestling Kostya Tszyu or a head-butting Maussa get as good as they give.
After dethroning Tszyu in June and out-mightying Maussa on Saturday, Hatton has finally stepped up his level of competition beyond the table scraps left behind by former titlist Sharmba Mitchell, clearing said table for supposed showdowns next year with fellow beltholders Miguel Cotto and Floyd Mayweather Jr.
Hatton has expressed a desire to leave the comforts of home and cross the pond, to take on major challenges in America’s major venues, despite his ability to attract crowds of his fellow countrymen who chant his name and cheer him on with brass bands. He’s only fought thrice in the States, all as a prospect, days when no one knew the difference between Silver Spoons’ Ricky Stratton and the Blue Moon ring entry of Ricky Hatton.
Sacrificing the shelter of cozy cash will cost him the inherent hometown advantage, but it is obvious that “The Hitman” intends to make his mark, to strive to succeed, even to bleed, as opposed to taking the money and running.
May it just prove to be rumors that Hatton will face Arturo Gatti next year, despite the potential for a moneymaking firefight between two gutsy guys that guarantee sell outs. For should it come true, it would be Hatton selling out, taking a step backwards in taking on a man that Mayweather easily took out.
Instead, and in case the Mayweather and Cotto fights don’t get signed in the near future, may the fans lick their chops at the idea of wars with Diego Corrales and Jose Luis Castillo.
Hatton will have time to consider all of his options as the holidays pass and 2006 commences, as he heals the two cuts suffered against Maussa.
As usual, Hatton flowed rivers of crimson, but in crossing the Atlantic Ocean, he can be unlike so many European beltholders that came before him, and show the whole world that he is a true champion.
The 10 Count
1. As the roads were clogging with traffic in preparation for the Thanksgiving holiday, during which our arteries were to be clogged with deliciousness, a gas tanker crashed and caught fire on I-95 near Washington, D.C., an occurrence with a connection to the sweet science.
Driving the truck, and luckily escaping unharmed, was Boyer Chew, a club fighter whose only claim to fame outside of the local Ballroom Boxing scene is from 1998, a seventh round stoppage loss to Antonio Tarver in the future light heavyweight champion’s eighth pro fight.
2. Just as much of a wreck, though, is the WBA featherweight title fight between Chris John and Juan Manuel Marquez. While the despicable defrocking of Marquez’s title belts has long since been chronicled, it is noteworthy to mention that, due to John’s ankle injury, the fight has been delayed to February from its initial date in December. Meanwhile, the vacant IBF trinket, stripped unceremoniously from Marquez, will be the prize for the winner of January’s bout between Phafrakorb Rakkietgym and Valdemir Pereira. With Rakkietgym-Pereira being televised on the 2006 premiere of ESPN2’s Friday Night Fights, the message is that the networks will pay to televise the crowning of a paper champ, while the true king is left to defend his reputation half way across the globe, with such a low contract payment that, with training and travel expenses, Marquez will likely be in the red, and seeing red.
3. For the second straight year, Friday Night Fights is commencing with decent cards, including a Golden Boy Promotions event featuring junior middleweight Kassim Ouma and junior lightweight Vincente Escobedo. The question remains, however, whether the network will continue with quality, or repeat the mistakes of this year, in which they followed a successful pay-per-view with broadcasts consisting mainly of club fighters, with the rare gem thrown in the mix.
4. Meanwhile, the December Best Damn Sports Show Period card that was originally intended to feature James Toney against Rob Calloway, as well as Juan Diaz versus Lakva Sim, has hit another obstacle. First, Toney withdrew from the Calloway fight in order to pursue a title shot at Hasim Rahman. Now, though, Sim has suffered a cut in sparring, leaving Fox Sports Net with a keep-busy fight for Glencoffe Johnson and a please-keep-me-upright appearance by Andre Ward.
5. Dan Rafael reports that HBO has canceled Oscar De La Hoya’s Boxeo De Oro program, which aired exclusively on their HBO Latino channels. The premium outlet is said to be developing a new boxing series to debut in the spring on one if its numerous channels, although no other details are yet available. Considering the quality matchmaking that Golden Boy Promotions used for the show, it was a shame that the audience was limited to those with access to HBO Latino, as well as to Spanish speakers and anyone willing to understand little beyond “jab” and “uppercut.” Let’s hope that the new series premieres with the same jumpstart as did Boxing After Dark, and helps to end the recent amount of tripe that filled most of this year’s telecasts.
6. Since television doesn’t seem to love boxing, the feeling is becoming mutual. It appears that the top names of the first season of The Contender are champing at the bit to step outside of their fraternity, to face different challengers with the possibility of actually furthering their careers. First, Ishe Smith became a promotional free agent, an emancipation that began to topple the other dominoes.
7. Next, Sergio Mora, the million-dollar winner of the reality show’s premiere season, told scribe Matt Richardson that he was ready to challenge himself, to see where he truly belonged in the middleweight division by facing non-Contenders, and actual contenders.
8. Then Alfonso Gomez, the fan favorite of the first season, told Richardson that he wanted to establish his reputation by adding name fighters to his ledger, a wise move considering that, on the show, he was a welterweight getting by on skills and heart to better bigger men. Although other castmates had already faced non-Contenders since the first season ended, they did so in cards not promoted by the show’s producers. Gomez, however, defeated journeyman Luciano Perez on the undercard of October’s Mora-Peter Manfredo Jr. rematch, and now seems to be longing for a crossroads battle with one of his division’s former (for lack of a better term) contenders.
9. Perhaps the man best taking advantage of an opportunity, though, is Manfredo, who will face, in February, a recognizable name in fellow New Englander Scott Pemberton. Although Manfredo has the benefit of youth, being thirteen years younger than Pemberton’s 38, Pemberton has spent eleven years as a professional proving himself in tough fights. Despite Pemberton’s knockout loss to Jeff Lacy earlier this month, “The Sandman” may not be ready to quietly fade away into the night, even against an ambitious former sparring partner like Manfredo.
10. Two brief corrections from last week’s column: Agapito Sanchez was a WBO junior featherweight champion, and not a junior bantamweight beltholder, as written, except for a brief period with a regional Dominican Republic belt. Also, the Joe Calzaghe-Jeff Lacy unification match has been moved from February to March.
