Former world champion Ricky Hatton is shaking his head at Hall of Fame trainer Freddie Roach, who recently made very critical comments on Ben Davison, who is the head trainer for Tyson Fury.
Roach, Hatton and Davison were all working Fury's corner on December 1, when the massive heavyweight challenged WBC world champion Deontay Wilder at Staples Center in Los Angeles.
Fury, in one of his best career performances, saw his effort end in a controversial twelve round split draw.
While Fury was praised for his efforts, Roach went public with his disappointment with some of Davison's decisions in the corner. Roach was brought on board to work Fury's corner as the cut man.
“I’m more of an offensive coach, I’m very aggressive, and I was a little bit disappointed with the corner work because Ben was telling him to feint, feint and step back and I said to him ‘why are you telling him to step back? Let this guy fight. He can get rid of this guy’,” Roach said to Fox Sports.
“We haven’t spoken about it yet but we’re going to have a meeting. I think he was very safe. [He said] ‘don’t take chances’. I said ‘wait a minute… don’t take chances? You’re in the boxing ring. You took a chance when you signed the contract for the fight.
"[Fury] hurt him a couple of times and I was disappointed he didn’t get a chance to finish him. It’s funny, Ben gave the exact same instruction to the 126 lbs fighter as he did the heavyweight fighter, so I said ‘wait… why are you treating these people the same?’ These fighters know each other, but they’re not the same. His instructions were the same and choreographed for both guys, so I was a little disappointed.
In the opinion of Hatton, those comments should have been kept behind closed doors and discussed with the team in private - not during a televised interview with a major media outlet.
"Things like that need to be said behind closed doors. Ben and Tyson welcomed Freddie into that corner with open arms, so to hear those comments was a bit disappointing," Hatton told MEN Sport.
"I think Freddie was wrong, but it doesn't even matter if you think he was right or wrong, you keep that stuff to yourself. It's about respect. For somebody of Ben's age and with the little experience at that level, to say he didn't do a good job is massively harsh. I thought he did an exceptional job.
"He certainly didn't look out of his depth, and it's harsh to say that he was giving the wrong advice. I thought he did a job to be proud of, and I knew that would be the case even before I was in the corner with him in Los Angeles. I knew that by just seeing him in the gym, and I've said that to people many times. Ben knows his stuff despite his little experience, and it showed. Tyson performed well and so did Ben, and it's a shame that none of them came out of it with what we wanted them to."
