#1 Reason Floyd Should Stay Retired...

[Benny Leonard]

[QUOTE=Addison;2471664]Benny, I'm surprised you don't appreciate what Hatton does..

Is it not a classic brawling style?

People attribute clinching nowadays to being strictly for defensive purposes.. I see it more as a style of fighting.

An extremely taxing, aggressive style of fighting..

I know you, Benny. You could probably name more great champions with this "style" than most folks here..

Does it really do nothing for you?
QUOTE]


Here is one of my previous post just the other day.

I have mixed feelings about the way Hatton does it, but it does reflect a bit of "old school" tactics.

http://www.boxingscene.com/forums/showthread.php?p=2468750#post2468750

This is what I wrote:

You know what, I do not even think Hatton's holding is all that bad, at least not like Ruiz.

Hatton's is more about bullying and seeing who is stronger, while Ruiz is about survival. Of course Ricky's holding of Collazo in the later rounds was about survival and you can rip him on that, but other than that, not all that bad.

It is not "artistic" the way he does it, not like Jack Johnson, which was very funny and embarrassed his opponents, but I am not going to knock him bad for it anymore. ****, I did not like how he did it to Tszyu, but a fighter has to be prepared for anything, even if it is against the rules. Although my complaint in that fight was that Ricky just nodded to the ref when he did not like when Tszyu did it, but if Ricky was doing it, the ref let it go.

I honestly do not think Hatton is stronger than Tszyu nor do I think he could of gotten away with it if it was years before, but Hatton did what he had to do (if I like it or not) to win the fight.


I do not mind him going into clinches to get a short rest in order to explode with combinations, but I would hope he would do it a bit less.

Hatton is a tough fighter which is why I never understood why he did not want Mayweather and Cotto, but maybe he just is not as confident as I think, after all, he has never really fought a "Great" let alone a good fighter that is in his prime, near the top of his game, or just on the way down.

His two biggest wins were a 35 year old Kostya Tszyu who was inactive for a couple of years from two injuries (that needed surgery) and had not fought more than 9 rounds in 3 years and Castillo who was not only moving up, but did not look good in his last fight, went through to many wars and looked shot from the beginning of the this fight.

I do not want to be to hard on Hatton since it is a hard occupation he is in, but I would like him to test himself against the so called best.
__________________

[Benny Leonard]

Many fighters have used the clinch, even a prime Tyson, but it is more understandable for a Heavyweight to do it than lighter weights.

Hatton has become too accustomed to punching once then holding. If he punched in more combos more often then clinched/grappled to sap his opponent’s strength or get a bit of a rest, I am fine with that.


This has always been part of the sport so it should not be shunned.

I am actually a bit worried about people complaining too much since I have noticed a few refs now preventing "in-fighting"

What Ruiz does however should be outlawed.

[Addison]

[QUOTE=Benny Leonard;2471682]

Benny, I'm surprised you don't appreciate what Hatton does..

Is it not a classic brawling style?

People attribute clinching nowadays to being strictly for defensive purposes.. I see it more as a style of fighting.

An extremely taxing, aggressive style of fighting..

I know you, Benny. You could probably name more great champions with this "style" than most folks here..

Does it really do nothing for you?
QUOTE]


Here is one of my previous post just the other day.

I have mixed feelings about the way Hatton does it, but it does reflect a bit of "old school" tactics.

http://www.boxingscene.com/forums/showthread.php?p=2468750#post2468750

This is what I wrote:

You know what, I do not even think Hatton's holding is all that bad, at least not like Ruiz.

Hatton's is more about bullying and seeing who is stronger, while Ruiz is about survival. Of course Ricky's holding of Collazo in the later rounds was about survival and you can rip him on that, but other than that, not all that bad.

It is not "artistic" the way he does it, not like Jack Johnson, which was very funny and embarrassed his opponents, but I am not going to knock him bad for it anymore. ****, I did not like how he did it to Tszyu, but a fighter has to be prepared for anything, even if it is against the rules. Although my complaint in that fight was that Ricky just nodded to the ref when he did not like when Tszyu did it, but if Ricky was doing it, the ref let it go.

I honestly do not think Hatton is stronger than Tszyu nor do I think he could of gotten away with it if it was years before, but Hatton did what he had to do (if I like it or not) to win the fight.


I do not mind him going into clinches to get a short rest in order to explode with combinations, but I would hope he would do it a bit less.

Hatton is a tough fighter which is why I never understood why he did not want Mayweather and Cotto, but maybe he just is not as confident as I think, after all, he has never really fought a "Great" let alone a good fighter that is in his prime, near the top of his game, or just on the way down.

His two biggest wins were a 35 year old Kostya Tszyu who was inactive for a couple of years from two injuries (that needed surgery) and had not fought more than 9 rounds in 3 years and Castillo who was not only moving up, but did not look good in his last fight, went through to many wars and looked shot from the beginning of the this fight.

I do not want to be to hard on Hatton since it is a hard occupation he is in, but I would like him to test himself against the so called best.
__________________

Good stuff, Benny. I see your point.

And I agree - Hatton got some big help from that ref in the KT fight..

[tyson]

Many fighters have used the clinch, even a prime Tyson, but it is more understandable for a Heavyweight to do it than lighter weights.

Hatton has become too accustomed to punching once then holding. If he punched in more combos more often then clinched/grappled to sap his opponent’s strength or get a bit of a rest, I am fine with that.


This has always been part of the sport so it should not be shunned.

I am actually a bit worried about people complaining too much since I have noticed a few refs now preventing "in-fighting"

What Ruiz does however should be outlawed.

What Ruiz does is outlawed. The problem lies within the enforcers of the law.
There's no problem in infighting, but there is a problem in holding and hitting, which Hatton does.
Hopkins too, but not to that extent.

But I agree with you that the other fighter have responsibility to prevent what doesn't work in his favour.
Learn how to jab, uppercut and move sideways works wonders against huggers.
That's why Mayweather will embarass Hatton too, IMO.

[j]

it is not just hatton's seemingly silent agreement with the ref in the tszyu fight that pisses me off, it's the way he get's knocked down and somehow it doesn't count, then throwing an intentional mean spirated low blow on kostya and he doesn't get penalized.

there are so many things wrong with that fight i don't even have the patience to go through it all. all in all, you could just simply tell that everything was being done to get hatton to come out on top in that fight.

[tyson]

And I've never heard Tszyu bitching about it. Now that's class!

[TomRiddle]

I like Hatton's style,
and I like his boxing trunks, the blue one, its good.

[ELPacman]

Cherry Pick?

WTF, do you even watch his fights?

His prime weight was down in the 130's. He could stand there all day and do what he wants with fighters in the 130's, but he moved up to get to O$car.

For his Castillo fight: First fight he was injured, second fight Floyd fought at full capacity and it was a better fight.

You still caught up in Hatton? The same Hatton who found out moving up in weight would not be a good idea. The same Hatton who will not fight a lightweight named Floyd. The same Hatton who hugs, nut shots his way to victory?

I hate to sound hard on Hatton because I do watch his fights and do like to see him fight, but enough with his nuthugging fans.

Um ok, and what legends did he face at his "prime" weight? Thought so. Good thing he kept moving up, unfortunately he dodged all the best that could give him trouble, so who cares. It took him how many years to face a true elite? That was an out of prime old Oscar. Oscar still gave him a decent fight. Prolly would have won it also if he used his jab more in the later rounds. The answer to this question, is the reason he should stay retired is because he knows he'll lose that 0 facing what people consider elite or that would give him trouble. Like I've always said, Floyd is a business man first, fighter second. He doesn't care about giving fans what they want, only what will make his pocket fatter. That is bad for boxing, and in time, he'll go down as a weak P4P fighter and people will say he never fought the true best of the era and avoided many. Instead we'll be hearing stories of the risk takers and people who don't care about losing their 0. ****, Cotto for having an 0, he don't fight like it. Gotta love fighters like him.

By the way, I'm not such a hater for Floyd's skills. He's got great talent and skill no doubt. That's what can blind you into thinking he should be #1 P4P, but unfortunately he never wants to test out his ability on the best, and to me, in my world that's like, someone telling me all day how fast their car is all day, but never races it or against me. talk talk.

[BmoreBrawler]

Hatton fights like an old Tyson with some young tyson mixed in.

[BROOKLYN CESAR]

I say fight on bro fight on!!! Your skillful displays of boxing are unmatched in the sport at the moment!!!