Is PRIME Ricky Hatton underrated?

[pesticid]

Compare both Cotto and Hatton's records, wins and losses and say which is better!!

No contest... And if you can formulate an unbiased opinion and say who you you think would win at 140 if they'd fought?

Sure!

I would compare them at 140 where they both fought the majority of their fights and were in their prime.

Ricky Hatton stopped Tzsuy, Maussa, Mailignaggi.

Cotto stopped Maussa barely escaped with the win over Malignaggi, was running for his life even when he broke N'dou's rib. Served as a punching bag to Ricardo Torres until gathering himself and putting him out.

It's a hard fight for both of them. Cotto will break down though like in the Margarito fight.

[turkas]

Ricky Hatton will always be my favorite fighter, there has never and will never be anyone like him again. The problem with his legacy is his prime was 7-8 years ago and most people on here were either not big into boxing or forgot about what the sport looked like back then.

It's not a knock or anything, people just get caught up into the moment. People will almost always think the hottest flavor of the month fighter is better then such and such 5 years ago. It's just part of the sport. And it's too bad sometimes because Hatton has some very good wins and was a complete beast at 140 and was seen pretty much universally as a top 10 p4p fighter at his peak.

People who are/were all in love with guys like Garcia, Matthysse, and Provodnikov would be almost drooling over Hatton back in '05 to mid '07.

[bojangles1987]

Prime Ricky Hatton gets unfairly punished for getting knocked out by two of the greatest fighters ever. Hatton did not embarrass himself in the least against Mayweather, either. He gave a decent go of it. He was past it against Pac, though still the best junior welterweight in the world.

Think about how much credit people wanted to give Broner for the Paulie fight. Those same people give Hatton no credit whatsoever for beating Paulie ten times easier when Paulie was still prime. Ricky was a very good fighter.

[The Surgeon]

It was truly spectacular.

How I wanted Hatton to win that fight.. Probably more than I've wanted anyone to win any fight at any stage I remember.

It's still tough watching it back - especially if you watch the build-up as well.

Awesome you were at the Tszuy fight - couldn't get tickets myself I remember.

Yeah i know and i genuinely thought he might! He had the ability to close the gap quicker than any fighter i can think of, tremendously fast feet. So i thought he could get close enough to hit Floyd with left hooks to the body and bully him around at times to get a win. The excitement threw me a lil and Mayweather was even better than i thought
Have u read Ricky's latest book?

[pesticid]

Yeah i know and i genuinely thought he might! He had the ability to close the gap quicker than any fighter i can think of, tremendously fast feet. So i thought he could get close enough to hit Floyd with left hooks to the body and bully him around at times to get a win. The excitement threw me a lil and Mayweather was even better than i thought
Have u read Ricky's latest book?

Even the great Mayweather had to clinch as opposed to shoulder rolling Hatton. It just goes to show you how good Ricky was at getting inside and work there. Floyd did not want any of that. If you count the number of clinches Floyd initiated in his fight against Hatton, it's a crazy number probably as bad as Devon vs Maidana. Not saying Hatton would've won but Floyd had to clinch, crouch, elbow, move.

[turkas]

Think about how much credit people wanted to give Broner for the Paulie fight. Those same people give Hatton no credit whatsoever for beating Paulie ten times easier when Paulie was still prime. Ricky was a very good fighter.

THIS RIGHT HERE! If Hatton were around today the hype he would have had in his prime would be over the top.

Yeah i know and i genuinely thought he might! He had the ability to close the gap quicker than any fighter i can think of, tremendously fast feet. So i thought he could get close enough to hit Floyd with left hooks to the body and bully him around at times to get a win. The excitement threw me a lil and Mayweather was even better than i thought
Have u read Ricky's latest book?

Is it a good read? I haven't checked it out yet, but I have really wanted to. Does it give a lot of insight into his career?

[pesticid]

It means you don't know what he would have done to guys like that even in his "prime" because he never faced them in the time frame you say he was in his prime, and all you can do is speculate like you just did. Just as is the case with Hatton. Was he really any better?, or was he still the same guy, and he just looked bad because he finally stepped in the ring with the highest tier of competition to whom you cannot do the same things you can to b and c fighters. I believe that is exactly what happened. He got to the pinnacle, and he was weighed measured and was found wanting.

Not even close! He moved to 147 with his t-rex arms and fought a tough, rangy southpaw in Collazo who he beat even if Collazo had him on ***** st in the last round. Then he fought Mayweather at 147 and he gave him hell. The Myweather defense or the shoulder roll was non-existent in that fight. Mayweather wanted no inside fighting with Ricky, he held, he clinched, he elbowed, he headbutted, he moved a lot, he had a lot of help from Cortez and it still took him over 11 rounds to get the reckless Ricky out of there. Imagine Floyd tried to shoulder roll Ricky the way he did with Cotto. Floyd's a smart fighter, that's why he had the crouch and clinch game plan against Ricky and with the help of Cortez it worked.

Then Ricky goes on a ******* spree and has to drop to 140 to fight Pacquiao, his trainer is not there and Mayweather Sr wasn't even training him, hell he walked out on Ricky after the fight - this was probably the worst thing I've seen a trainer do. It just goes to show you what kind of relationship they had in training camp.

So all in all Ricky lost to Mayweather at 147 in his second fight there and at 140 against Pacquiao.

Paulie who is so highly regarded didn't even win a round before getting stopped by Hatton. Tszuy was beatdown and quit. These last two guys are not b and c level fighters.

[LacedUp]

Yeah i know and i genuinely thought he might! He had the ability to close the gap quicker than any fighter i can think of, tremendously fast feet. So i thought he could get close enough to hit Floyd with left hooks to the body and bully him around at times to get a win. The excitement threw me a lil and Mayweather was even better than i thought
Have u read Ricky's latest book?

Me too. I remember not many people gave him a shot outside of the UK - but I remember thinking we knew something they didn't. That Ricky would never give up - and he couldn't be knocked out. Not to pretty boy floyd at least!

I did get the chance to read it a couple of months ago. It was very gripping. I even had my copy signed by him as well.

[racer59]

Lets try to be somewhat realistic. Hatton, while he was a very good fighter, was never elite or ATG. He gets way overrated.

The guy was a Frank Warren creation, and FW did a hell of a job cultivating him as draw with a huge following in the UK. But the dude was way overprotected. If you were around back then, thats exactly what almost every subjective and educated boxing fan said about him.

He was very much protected because the guy was raking it in selling out the MEN. FW wasn't going to let that go easily. Remember when Eamonn Magee dropped him, FW nearly shat himself. So what happens next, he fights the Michael Ste***** and Vince Phillips of the world - limited journeyman and past their prime fighters.

Ask yourself this. He could have fought Sharmba Mitchell, Kostya Tszyu, Randall Bailey, Demarcus Corley, Diosbelys Hurtado, Vivian Harris or even an Emmanuel Agustus/Burton between 02 and 04 yet he didn't and why??? No promotor beefs, they all fought on Showtime so no network issues. It was only because his promoter protected the hell out of him until they could catch an old KT. And if you don't think KT was done by then, well you either have blinder or are a huge Hatton fan. Lets not even get started on the JLC that Hatton fought, the funny part was that Hatton really thought that he was measuring himself versus Floyd with the way he beat Castillo.

[Daddy T]

it would have been very interesting to see hatton against the tier one notch below the pacs and mayweathers ... you know I'd love to have seen how prime hatton would have faired against the likes of cotto, mosley, margarito & co