Ricky Hatton's Natural Talent

[nomadman]

Always puzzled me too,Urango is built like a tank

Urango's all upper body though. He's got a pretty lean midsection and small legs.

[nomadman]

Hatton's raw athletic ability was definitely undervalued. He had great core strength coming from a rock solid base, very fast feet and extremely good explosive handspeed. He also possessed the sort of reactions that allowed him to avoid punches simply by pulling back his head, usually a massive no-no in boxing but one which Hatton managed to carry up to the highest levels of the sport for many years. His sense of timing was pretty good as well, not incredible (he tended to fight in a predictable rhythm after a while) but good enough to land his shots on fighters whom lesser fighters wouldn't have been able to land on. As for whether he could have done more with his talents, a little I think, though he more or less made the best of himself. A little more head movement wouldn't have gone amiss, but that seems more like a concentration issue as Hatton sometimes turned off and just bulled straight in. More commitment to the body is the biggest one I can think of, since Hatton possessed a phenomenal body attack in his early years, just relentless, and if he could have focused on perfecting that instead of his mauling clinching style I think he would have had a lot easier time of it with some of his opponents and perhaps prolonged his career. As for his out of the ring habits, well obviously if he hadn't boozed it up and blown up between every fight it would have been to everyone's benefit, but then Hatton wouldn't have been Hatton, and might well have burnt out sooner. Who knows?