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Boxing Monthly have quite an interesting article on Hatton this month, written by Graham Houston.
In his regular column "Letter From America" he has an article titled "What's good for the goose" which reads as follows:
For what's it worth, I always personally thought Hatton was a little too rule-bending for my liking. The old holding another opponent's arms and so on. I never used to like him much at all. Too rough, too untested. But I had to take some of that back when he beat Tsyzu and admit that the pale little bugger IS for real.
But what really put me onto Hatton is seeing the slating he got on here post-Zoo - a slating that no US-based boxer ever gets when employing similar tactics. Ricky had so much respect for Kostya that I can put his "shot at the back of the head" almost down to unintentional over exuberance. But even if he DID do it on purpose, Ricky was getting vilified for that on here - yet when Bernard Hopkins belted Taylor full force, right on the back of the head - not once, but TWICE - he's still a hero.
My guess is that Ricky wouldn't cop half as much flak as he does in the US press... if he could somehow change "Country of Origin" on his passport.
In his regular column "Letter From America" he has an article titled "What's good for the goose" which reads as follows:
Now here's something funny. Ricky Hatton gets stuck in against Kostya Tszyu in a very physical way and all of a sudden the American fight fraternity is up in arms. Floyd Mayweather Jr. calls Hatton a dirty fighter. The ESPN2 network boxing commentator Joe Tessitore said he thought referee Dave Parris's handling of the fight was "atrocious" because he let Hatton rough up Kostya. And so on.
Excuse me, but haven't American fighters been revered through the years for their take-no-prisoners approach? By all accounts the old welterweight champion Fritzie Zivic was a truly dirty fighter, adept at sticking a thumb in the other man's eye in the days before thumb-attached gloves. Sandy Saddler was murderous, Jake LaMotta as rough as they come, and don't even mention to British boxing fans of a certain age what Rocky Marciano did to Don ****ell.
Schooled as I was in the British boxing industry, a recurrent theme back in the day seemed to be that Americans came to fight while our lads boxed like, well, English gentlemen.
This is a generalisation, I know, but at its core not too far from the truth. We knew that British fighters would get no favours when boxing abroad. Reg Gutteridge, one of the most entertaining and knowledgable of the British writers, liked to use the line "The park the rules at the gates" when referring to the U.S. boxing business.
Anyone who saw a tape of Marciano-****ell would know what Reg meant. ****ell was butted, hit while he was on one knee, you name it. There didn't seem any particulrly evil intent: It was just Rocky being Rocky. But ****ell was mugged that long-age night in San Fransisco.
Ken Buchanan got some rough treatment from Roberto Duran at Madison Square Garden. We all know about the shot in the groin that took Kenny out of the fight, but Duran was steaming into him not unlike Hatton against Tszyu. I watched a tape of the Duran-Buchanan fight the other day. As early as the second round Buchanan was turning his head away in the clinches to avoid getting busted up as Duran bored in. The ref, Johnny Lo Bianco, was having to hold Duran back when he broke the boxers because the Panamanian wanted to keep right on top of Buchanan. In the 11th round Buchanan was pushed almost over the middle rope. Ricky's smothering aggression against Tszyu didn't match what Duran did to Buchanan on the roughness meter. Duran was lauded for his fury, Hatton fights basically the same type of fight and gets criticised. Don't get it.
And why was the Stateside fraternity suddenly feeling sorry for Tszyu? Didn't Tszyu throw Sharmba Mitchell all over the ring in their first fight? And the Mexican boxer Ahmed Santos once told me in conversation that when Tszyu stopped him in eight rounds what really hurt him was the punches the Russian-Aussie landed to the back of the head.
Fair dos to Tszyu, though, he never cried about it. Kostya has dished it out in the past. It was his turn to take it. He knew it went with the territory.
I loved Ricky's rebuff to Mayweather's "dirty fighter" comment when Hatton was interviewed by host Brian Kenny as ESPN2's studio guest on Friday Fight Nights the night before Mayweather vs. Arturo Gatti.
"I'll be gentle with him," Ricky said with a smile.
When was the last time a British fighter said that about an American? Probably never.
Excuse me, but haven't American fighters been revered through the years for their take-no-prisoners approach? By all accounts the old welterweight champion Fritzie Zivic was a truly dirty fighter, adept at sticking a thumb in the other man's eye in the days before thumb-attached gloves. Sandy Saddler was murderous, Jake LaMotta as rough as they come, and don't even mention to British boxing fans of a certain age what Rocky Marciano did to Don ****ell.
Schooled as I was in the British boxing industry, a recurrent theme back in the day seemed to be that Americans came to fight while our lads boxed like, well, English gentlemen.
This is a generalisation, I know, but at its core not too far from the truth. We knew that British fighters would get no favours when boxing abroad. Reg Gutteridge, one of the most entertaining and knowledgable of the British writers, liked to use the line "The park the rules at the gates" when referring to the U.S. boxing business.
Anyone who saw a tape of Marciano-****ell would know what Reg meant. ****ell was butted, hit while he was on one knee, you name it. There didn't seem any particulrly evil intent: It was just Rocky being Rocky. But ****ell was mugged that long-age night in San Fransisco.
Ken Buchanan got some rough treatment from Roberto Duran at Madison Square Garden. We all know about the shot in the groin that took Kenny out of the fight, but Duran was steaming into him not unlike Hatton against Tszyu. I watched a tape of the Duran-Buchanan fight the other day. As early as the second round Buchanan was turning his head away in the clinches to avoid getting busted up as Duran bored in. The ref, Johnny Lo Bianco, was having to hold Duran back when he broke the boxers because the Panamanian wanted to keep right on top of Buchanan. In the 11th round Buchanan was pushed almost over the middle rope. Ricky's smothering aggression against Tszyu didn't match what Duran did to Buchanan on the roughness meter. Duran was lauded for his fury, Hatton fights basically the same type of fight and gets criticised. Don't get it.
And why was the Stateside fraternity suddenly feeling sorry for Tszyu? Didn't Tszyu throw Sharmba Mitchell all over the ring in their first fight? And the Mexican boxer Ahmed Santos once told me in conversation that when Tszyu stopped him in eight rounds what really hurt him was the punches the Russian-Aussie landed to the back of the head.
Fair dos to Tszyu, though, he never cried about it. Kostya has dished it out in the past. It was his turn to take it. He knew it went with the territory.
I loved Ricky's rebuff to Mayweather's "dirty fighter" comment when Hatton was interviewed by host Brian Kenny as ESPN2's studio guest on Friday Fight Nights the night before Mayweather vs. Arturo Gatti.
"I'll be gentle with him," Ricky said with a smile.
When was the last time a British fighter said that about an American? Probably never.
For what's it worth, I always personally thought Hatton was a little too rule-bending for my liking. The old holding another opponent's arms and so on. I never used to like him much at all. Too rough, too untested. But I had to take some of that back when he beat Tsyzu and admit that the pale little bugger IS for real.
But what really put me onto Hatton is seeing the slating he got on here post-Zoo - a slating that no US-based boxer ever gets when employing similar tactics. Ricky had so much respect for Kostya that I can put his "shot at the back of the head" almost down to unintentional over exuberance. But even if he DID do it on purpose, Ricky was getting vilified for that on here - yet when Bernard Hopkins belted Taylor full force, right on the back of the head - not once, but TWICE - he's still a hero.
My guess is that Ricky wouldn't cop half as much flak as he does in the US press... if he could somehow change "Country of Origin" on his passport.
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