Hatton planning to crack America

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  • SMC
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    #1

    Hatton planning to crack America

    Ricky Hatton is confident of wowing America when he challenges WBA welterweight champion Luis Collazo at Boston Garden on Saturday.

    Hatton tops the bill against Collazo in the first bout of his three-fight deal with US television network HBO.

    "I fight like an American, or even a Mexican, so I should be up their street," Hatton, 27, told BBC Sport.

    "The British public have taken me to their hearts and I'm hoping the Americans will do the same."

    Manchester's Hatton, who arrived in Boston on Saturday, is already a hit with America's boxing writers, who last week voted him their fighter of the year.

    In addition, Ring magazine named him fighter of the year for 2005 after he claimed the IBF and WBA light welterweight belts with wins over Kostya Tszyu and Carlos Maussa respectively.

    Hatton urges fans to be patient

    And Hatton, the only Brit to have won the Ring award, is further motivated by the fact that so few Brits have broken into the American market before him.

    "We've had a lot of good world champions who have defended titles in Britain, but there's only a handful who have become successful in the States," said Hatton, who has now relinquished his light welterweight belts.

    "I don't want to be known as a fighter who, although he beat some good names and won a world title, just fought in his own back yard.

    "I want to be an exception to the rule and you can imagine what it means to a British fighter to be topping the bill in the States and fighting live on HBO."

    HBO's plan is for Hatton to fight former two-weight world champion Arturo Gatti next before a superfight with pound-for-pound king Floyd Mayweather.

    And Hatton hopes a few thousand of his loyal fans will be at Boston Garden on Saturday as he sets out on the road to world domination.

    "British fighters have gone over in the past, like Frank Bruno, Lennox Lewis and Naseem Hamed, and always had great support," said Hatton, who is unbeaten in 40 fights.

    "There's no fans more loyal than mine. I'll be expecting plenty of Man City shirts in the crowd and hopefully a few of the Americans have been practising (Hatton's entrance song) Blue Moon."

    Meanwhile, Hatton said he has felt comfortable at his new weight in training and is confident he will carry his power and speed up to 147lbs.

    "Only time will tell whether I'm more suited to welterweight or light welterweight, but I'm more explosive in the gym and I feel quicker," said Hatton.

    "My diet is a lot better but my weight training has become more extreme, because you don't just want to be a big light welterweight, you want to be a big welterweight."

    BBC.co.uk/sport
  • MetalVomit
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    #2
    From what I've seen of Hatton, he'll likely end up DQ'd in his first big time fight in America, we already have the WWE, it's not allowed in boxing rings. No disrespect intended toward Hatton, I'm just baseing my opinion off of the 2 times I've seen him fight. I'd be ecstatic to be incorrect in my assumption. We shall see.

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    • SMC
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      #3
      Hmmm so many times this is brought up and as you have only seen 2 Hatton fights don't you think it's a little hard to judge him over those 2 out of the 40 fights he has had? I'll take it your referring to the Tszyu fight and if so Hatton did what he needed to get the win even Kostya admitted that after the fight

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      • glenspen
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        #4
        Don't worry, you'll grow to appreciate Hatton.

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        • JuicyJuice
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          #5
          There were thousands of Brit's out there supporting Nigel Benn, but Ricky won't remember that because he was only about 12 then

          I'm sure there'll be plenty of Mancunian's going over.

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          • scap
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            #6
            The Ricky Hatton's and the Jeff Lacy's of the sport are pretty rare...

            Ricky is a machine and I cant be more excited that he has decided to cross the pond to further his standing.

            Floyd and Ricky in my mind were never ever going to fight each other(I never thought the home turf thing would ever get ironed out) but watching Hatton come over here and sign a deal with HBO says one thing loud and clear too this fight fan...

            Hatton v. Mayweather is going to happen.

            Ricky like Lacy before him deserves most of the kudos for that regardless of how things ultimately turn out inside the ring!

            Embrace this kid America weather you love to love him or you love to hate him he is 1/2 of the biggest prize fight that can be made in the world-we all know who the other 1/2 is.

            Can't ****ing wait!

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            • flipbjefrox
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              #7
              as long as he doesnt wrestle then i'll be satisfied. but collazo is no push over. if the line is good i might throw in a couple hundreds on collazo

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              • JuicyJuice
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                #8
                Originally posted by scap
                Floyd and Ricky in my mind were never ever going to fight each other(I never thought the home turf thing would ever get ironed out)
                I really don't understand how people could of thought Hatton wouldn't want to fight Mayweather at MSG or the MGM or somewhere. It will be a real dream come true for him, topping bills in America.
                Last edited by JuicyJuice; 05-09-2006, 12:17 PM.

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                • JuicyJuice
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                  #9
                  Loads went over to support Bruno for Tyson II, but Manchester City's fan base is something like 60,000 and ALL Man City fans are Ricky Hatton fans (there would always be a desperate race for tickets for Hatton's MEN fights).. so if MSG holds something like 20,000 (right?) they might all be Ricky Hatton fans!

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                  • scap
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                    #10
                    Originally posted by JuicyJuice
                    I really don't understand how people could possibly of thought Hatton wouldn't want to fight Mayweather at MSG or the MGM or somewhere. It will be a real dream come true for him, topping bills in America.

                    I always figured that Floyd would want to fight in the states with a referee who would break them IMMEDIATELY anytime they got tangled.

                    I always figured Ricky would want to fight in Man U. with a referre who CONSISTENTLY makes them punch to get out of any sort of tangle.

                    How this fight is officated is absolutely HUGE in my mind and I figured that neither guy would budge based upon not getting a fair shake.

                    Im not saying Floyd ius ducking Ricky but I have a hard time seeing Mayweather going to Manchester to fight Ricky...Ricky has bascially made this fight single handedly by crossing over and for that every fight fan should give Ricky a little jerk next time they have a moment alone in the bathroom.

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