Ricky Hatton Has Juan Urango in His Sights

By Terry Dooley
Photo by Allan Stevenson

Two years after the tidal wave of euphoria that greeted his win over Kostya Tszyu, Ricky Hatton has had to endure a maelstrom of criticism in recent months. 

His weight, dedication, longevity and choice of opponents have all been brought under great scrutiny after that hard-fought win over the previously unheralded Luis Collazo (who should boost his stock if he happens to beat Shane Mosley when they meet next month). 

Claims that Hatton is no longer living a fighter's life have been brought keenly into focus since the Tszyu win despite the fact that Hatton has been playing by the same train hard and party hard rules that kept him fresh throughout his WBU apprenticeship. 

These claims have been enjoined by other claims that Junior Witter has stolen a march on him by beating Demarcus Corley for the vacant WBC junior welterweight title, that Hatton had a poor 2006 and that his ambition may have faded.

With all this said, the fight against Juan Urango becomes not just another title, Juan’s IBF light-welterweight belt, to run at.  It offers Ricky a chance to show that he can still fight to his optimum level as well as setting up a big fight with Jose Luis Castillo, a fight that will be bracketed as a mayor one despite minor quibbles some have over Castillo’s effectiveness at light-welter. 

As Billy Graham went through another pad session with the pupil most responsible for his aching hand and knee bones Ricky did not hold back, he pounded the body-belt then went through his bag-sessions with renewed relish.  After Ricky had finished, BoxingScene remarked about how the weight questions we had asked him about in our last meeting, now seemed like a waste of time.

Then the time came to sit down with Ricky to ask him about the fight, but firstly there was the question of the MBE award in the Queens honours list, Ricky clearly felt that this ranked amongst his proudest achievements.

“It is great (the MBE).  To be honest I never thought I’d win a world-title but I always knew I could do something in boxing because I’ve always had the confidence to do something in boxing.

It was a dream to win a world-title and making the most of all my potential was great but to win an MBE is something totally different.  You get that award not just for what you do in the ring but what you do out of the ring as well. 

For services to boxing and my charity work.

I am very fortunate because there have been so many world Champions over the years from this country who have not got an MBE so it was one of biggest honours of my life.”

It must also be an honour that brings with it a lot of family pride especially for a fighter who is managed by his father and has a brother, Matthew, who is also a boxer.

“I share the award with my family because we are very close and they are a very important part of my team.  They have looked after me and they encouraged me in the early years to help me get into a position where I can receive awards like this. 

Likewise everyone from the camp such as Billy and the team around me share the award.  Without a lot of peoples help I would not be in a position to get an award like this.  It as got to be one of the proudest days in my family’s history.”

At the time of writing Ricky had not yet been to London to receive the award so BoxingScene asked when that was going to take place.

“I’m not sure when it is but I hope it is after I fight.  The fact I have it is the main thing and it is a huge honour but I would be a liar if I said I didn’t want to go and get it and meet the Queen.”

In the meantime Ricky has business to take care of versus the Tyson-like Columbian Juan Urango.  It is another fight in the US in which Ricky finds himself in the position of challenger for someone else’s title.

“Yeah I can’t wait to go for my world-title belts five and six in my old division and set the record for world-titles in consecutive fights, which is a record for British fighters.  I get my old belt back and it is a belt I never lost in the ring. Six different world titles in four different fights is a great thing and I look forward to getting the IBF and IBO titles.”

Location must be an added bonus in this case, Hatton has often spoken of his admiration for the great fighters and so many of their title fights took place in Las Vegas making this part boxing pilgrimage part fight. 

“Oh yeah I can’t wait for it.  Vegas will be great and it is great for my career because it is where all the great fights are and have been.  It is unbelievable and I have to pinch myself about what I’ve achieved."

"Getting MBE’s and topping the bill in Vegas gives me even more of an incentive to put on a show.  I don’t want to go to Vegas and stink the place out so that will give me an extra incentive to put on a show for the American fans and the British fans who travel to watch me.”

After watching Urango in action against the likes of Andre Eason, Ben Rabah, Ubaldo Hernandez and Mike Arnaoutis, it is clear that Ricky will not have to go out and search for Juan.  There will be no drawing the counter of the counter that was supposed to be a lead but was turned into a counter-counter.  Urango can be a dual switch, he can be boxed and if you want to bang for a bit to impress the crowd he is an obtainable target.

“No I won’t have to look for him, not at all.  He is a big puncher, he is very stocky.  He is stockier than me to be honest with you and it is quite a challenge.  It should be a good fight and I don’t expect it to be boring, it can’t be boring really." 

"HBO have knocked back so many opponents because they wouldn’t be exciting to watch so the fact they have accepted Urango speaks volumes about what type of fight it will be.”

This is also one of those bills where fans can compare and contrast two fighters on a collision course.  Jose Luis Castillo is returning back to action in order to show that he is strong at a new weight as well showing he will be a strong force in a proposed fight with ‘The Hitman’.

“Yeah, it is great because Castillo can, and has, topped bills on his own without me so it is great to share the bill with a Mexican legend and one of the top fighters pound for pound in the world. "

In fact he is above me pound for pound and I took a pound for pounder out when I beat Kostya Tszyu so to take Castillo out would give me two scalps from the top ten ranking and would be massive for me.”

Two pound for pound entrants will be a great addition to the Hatton record as boxing is about taking on guys with big reputations then taking their aura away.  Castillo has built up his aura via two decent fights with Floyd Mayweather, a mini-classic with Joel Casamayor and those two battles with Diego Corrales.  He will be a fine addition to the ‘W’ column if Hatton beats him.

“Some fighters never get to beat anyone from the top rankings so to beat two would be massive but first things first, that fight goes out of the window if I get beaten by Urango. Urango is young, he is hungry and ambitious, he is also unbeaten and a big puncher.  Nobody is saying that they have heard much about him really but they said the same thing about me when I beat Tszyu and look what happened there. I look at this as my toughest ever fight and that is how you have to go into every fight to be honest.”

A trickle of speculation about injuries Hatton to Hatton’s elbows lead to claims that he is nursing a fading body through his fights.  In truth there have been elbow problems yet there has also been an ongoing process of elbow manipulation in order to lengthen Hatton’s reach and repair the wear and tear one picks up during a lengthy boxing career, a career that has seen a crooking of his arms.

“It has been affecting me in my last three or four fights (the elbows) but I can’t go on about it too much.  It was only known about in camp and has crept out recently. 

"To be honest I hate it when a fighter says “oh my hands were hurting or I had a cold” if things are that bad you should pull out off the fight.  There is nothing worse than watching a fighter have an off performance then they start making excuses about this and that.  I kept quiet about my injury even though I have had it for three and four fights but this is the best it has been for the last three or four fights as I‘ve had plenty of manipulation work on it.”

Hatton had plenty of excuses for that late fade in the Collazo fight, natural weight tells the tale throughout a fight so it was no surprise when Collazo broke through strongly in the final round with some sweeping southpaw right hooks.  Instead of grumbling about fighting a bigger man Hatton came clean and admitted that Luis had seriously hurt him in their fight.  

“I did not make excuses after Collazo because you can’t do that if you fight the fight.  It was a difficult fight but I would rather give credit to my opponent than make excuses about this and that or the other.  If you get beaten or under perform because you are not right that is your fault."

"I can’t be doing with fighters who make excuses.  If you knocked the f*cker out in the first round you wouldn’t be complaining about anything would you?”

The fight with Urango should not give Ricky much to complain about.  Granted it is semi-risky what with Urango being a big-hitting southpaw and Ricky’s most recent ring memory is of some scything right hooks from southpaw Collazo, yet Urango is a fairly straight forward fighter.

Hatton can give him movement if he feels it is right, Rabah bamboozled Urango with this approach and Hatton can move, that is forgotten about and he needs to remind people of this facet of his game. 

On the other hand Andre Eason tried moving Urango around only to be pinned back so Eason instead opted to throw uppercuts, hooks and screwed shots through the middle of Urango’s peek-a-copied guard.  In fact Eason was doing well in their fight, despite two knock-downs against him, until that big, dangerous for Hatton, right hook broke through.

If Hatton has done his homework the stage is set for an impressive performance, the stage is one, a Las Vegas title fight, that Hatton has always craved so come win, lose or draw there is bound to be the presence of excitement, as well as an absence of excuses.