Hatton and his team get it wrong!

[MickyHatton]

Obviously I'm a huge Hatton fan but I cannot understand recent career choices and tactics.

1. The move to up to welter whilst extremely commendable I think was made in haste, Hatton is the king at light welter in my opinion and should have had one or two more fights to tie up the remaining belts.
2. He (or his team) picked a no win type fight, Collazo was underrated in my book, he is a tricky, quick, heavy handed (although his record does not reflect it) southpaw and most importantly he is a natural welter, also Don King usually picks good fighters with qualities that eventually shine through so...
3. To compensate for the change in weight, Ricky seems to have concentrated heavily on strength training and weights, this for me has taken some of the speed and snap out of his shots.
4. He has began to rely heavily on his stamina and work rate, this will not be as effective against the bigger men, add into that the time adjustment and jet lag when fighting in the states which will only hamper his natural conditioning and recovery unless he make a semi permanent move across the water.

I think perhaps the Hatton camp will study the tapes and jump to the obvious conclusions and address them, I do not think Billy Graham will readily look for a southpaw again and I expect a sharper more defined performance next time out.

The positives I feel are that Hatton is now a two weight world champion, he has opened his account in the higher division and in the states, outside of the performance I think we should applaud the fact he has travelled(when many don't), he took on a dangerous fighter in a higher weight division which for me was the hard route, many would have had a warm up fight or two first, he has been dignified and excepts his short comings in this fight like the champion he is without excuses or regrets.

I believe this experience will make him a better fighter in the long term whoever he fights next!

[elgaringo]

My thoughts, pretty much!!

[Kimmy]

I agree, Hatton's choice of opponent was confusing and dangerous for his career, the fight was very close.

[ophqui]

i disagree that his move to Welter was made in haste; he's chasing the big money fights with Gatti, Cotto and Mayweather, theres no reason to stay at LW where there are so few names all of a sudden, personally i think the move was right for him.
Having said that i agree wholeheartedly that it was an odd choice of opponent, i think 'no win situation' was going a bit far, Hatton needed to prove he could hang with natrual welters without being outmuscled and he did exactly that, although not in as convicing a fashoin as i would have liked.
Im not sure that he lacked 'snap,' i think it was just a case of hitting a bigger man will obviously have less effect, and hatton is a small welterweight irrespective of his focus on weights.
I think it was a pretty good nights work in all, he proved everything he needed to, i personally thought it was a pretty conclusive win and going overseas to fight just erradicates another criticism that has been made of him. its onwards and upwards from here!

[psychopath]

The way I see it, Hatton and his team has no choice but to climb up in weight because Ricky might be having difficulties trimming his weight back down to 140 lbs. Ricky bloats to about 160 lbs when not training and there are a lot of pictures posted in this site before that will prove my theory.

Just my opinion.

[MickyHatton]

i disagree that his move to Welter was made in haste; he's chasing the big money fights with Gatti, Cotto and Mayweather, there's no reason to stay at LW where there are so few names all of a sudden, personally i think the move was right for him.
Having said that i agree wholeheartedly that it was an odd choice of opponent, i think 'no win situation' was going a bit far, Hatton needed to prove he could hang with natural welters without being out muscled and he did exactly that, although not in as convicing a fashoin as i would have liked.
Im not sure that he lacked 'snap,' i think it was just a case of hitting a bigger man will obviously have less effect, and hatton is a small welterweight irrespective of his focus on weights.
I think it was a pretty good nights work in all, he proved everything he needed to, i personally thought it was a pretty conclusive win and going overseas to fight just erradicates another criticism that has been made of him. its onwards and upwards from here!

I think perhaps you have misinterpreted my comments, what I meant by him moving to welter too soon was that there are one or two big fights down at Light Welter (Castillo, Corrales, Casamayor)before risking the bigger men.
By 'no win situation' I meant that he would always look awkward against Collazo, if he won easy then it would have been regarded as Hatton taking the hand picked route, if it was hard (as it turned out to be) then the questions would be asked (as they are)
As for the snap of his punches, take a look at the fights in 2004, his shots were crisp and sweet. The last couple of fights especially his shots have looked slower and laboured, the fluidity has dropped slightly, I'm certain as a coach myself that this is down to over weight training, however this can be turned around and I think that it will be!

[MickyHatton]

The way I see it, Hatton and his team has no choice but to climb up in weight because Ricky might be having difficulties trimming his weight back down to 140 lbs. Ricky bloats to about 160 lbs when not training and there are a lot of pictures posted in this site before that will prove my theory.

Just my opinion.

You could be right although they state that they intend to float between the two divisions when needed so I think he can still make the weight OK!

[JuicyJuice]

Collazo was the LAST choice opponent.

Hatton has a bunch of amateurs promoting him now.

[Castillofan]

There was so much wrong with Ricky Hatton's performance tonight against Luis Collazo, in fact, there was a lot wrong with several aspects of the fight, fighters and the broadcasters.

Collazo was nowhere near as warmed up as he should have been going into the first round, where he was caught cold by Hatton by a very solid left hook. Collazo went down, but went on to prove that he had the physical authority as the natural welterweight.

I always thought that the fight was a mistake for Hatton because of Collazo's southpaw style which has historically caused Hatton trouble. I just did not think that at times Hatton would look embarrassingly out of his depth.

Having wintered and summered Hatton's career I could tell from the very start that something was off. The usual zip that is about his work was missing. Hatton got lucky when he caught Collazo with the left hook, but that luck deserted him very soon afterwards.

The bounce in Hatton's step seemed to have deadened and he did not dart in and out of range nor have the multi-dimensional facets of his attack in full working order. Hatton came forward far too predictably for the entire fight, and much more predictably than he usually does.

Hatton scarcely stepped off to his left and delivered the hooks to the body and head in quick successions, nor did he square up to Collazo and bring in the right handed attacks that are unique to his style in this day and age. Instead, Hatton's gameplan seemed to hinge on the pure power of his will.

So basic was Hatton that when Jim Lampley called him a fighter "having only fundamental boxing skills," that the many millions of American fans watching the fight might be duped into believing that Hatton is incapable of putting on a boxing display.

Hatton is a very talented boxer but for some reason, he is choosing not to show it as of late. Instead, he simply rages forward looking for the money punches. I did not see him working a jab against Collazo, nor did I see him use his speed of attack. Rather it was that Hatton looked for placement with his head on Collazo's chest while searching for openings he rarely found to the head and body.

Maybe now Hatton realizes that a bold move such as this was a mistake, and honestly, one he was very, very lucky to get away with against Collazo. All Hatton's career was moved at a snail's pace, and since the Tszyu win, he has looked to cram all of the fights he was long denied into such a small amount of time.

Hatton is not a welterweight. He was strong and determined against Collazo, but those same qualities are deemed explosive at light welterweight. Hatton says he needs to grow into welterweight, but with the big fights he wants available within the next year, it's difficult to see him being able to find an accommodating schedule that will allow him to properly acclimate. As a two-weight world champion, he is now twice as hunted, plus the fact that HBO will not have one of their star attractions fighting tune-ups at this stage of his career.

Jim Lampley's performance on this event surprised me. He made a lot of bad calls and seemed to miss the mark on a lot of segments of action, which I find astounding for someone who has been calling the best action in the world for as long as he has.

The event was not a success. Hatton was always going to struggle, but his best qualities only just managed to bring him to victory by a very, very slight margin and that will not be enough to save him from the criticism he will receive from the American market, and it will not be enough to win him many new fans.

It was a bold move from Hatton but not one that was very prudent and I hope he realizes that now. HBO need to put him in at welterweight with a strong, orthodox puncher that will meet him head on if they are to salvage anything from this showing.

Large sections of the arena in Boston were completely empty, and some work will have to be done to ensure that Hatton improves upon this performance in the ring and in terms of putting fans in the seats all across the board.

[moochi]

hatton didn't have much of a choice....he wanted an easy opponent at 147 and that was either going to be Collazo or Baldomir...they wouldn't even fight the shot Judah........

all this about collazo having a certain style is crap, he is your pretty average slick southpaw, but nothing special at all and his record shows that....the only 147 lb winnable fights out there for hatton is against baldomir and gatti, who both are fighting each other...

apart from these two, i'm sure hatton's team wants none of margarito or mayweather...not even judah!