Hatton's victory over Tszyu, how great is it now?

[DLT]

I dont like all the holding crap because I dont think thats boxing and its a ***** move but I see nothing wrong with anything else he does. My question is, when did all of us fans start getting upset over being dirty? One time you use to get compliments for this and people would call you a old school guy with alot of tricks.

I dont mind a guy getting a littil rough in the ring. I think its pretty cool. I use to like watching Tszyu & Hopkins manhandle guys.

[Cletus Funk]

It's about time everyone is thinking what im thing. I've mentioned that Hatton was a dirty fight for quite some time now.

Can you give an example of Hatton's "dirtiness" from any of his fights before Tszyu? There must be plenty, you've got 38 fights to go at.

[The Wire]

It's bull****, people just judge Hatton on his last three fights and think all he does is hold. It's an ugly style and I don't know why he's changed to it, but he has. It worked against Tszyu and I think he thinks if it worked against him itd work against anyone.

The win itself is and was great. No one on the planet thought Hatton would win, and he did. Tszyu was not shot, look at his three round destruction of Sharmba Mitchell. Everyone on here sucks Mayweather's ****, and it took him six rounds and that was AFTER Tszyu had annihilated him. It's pathetic. Hatton's style at the moment IS ugly. I totally agree, and hope he changes back soon cos he's not gonna win any fans basically being Britain's answer to John Ruiz, if a little more exciting. BUT the greatness of his victory over Tszyu should never be overlooked. IT was a fantastic win, one for the ages.

[abdiel2k3]

no one disputes that it wasnt a prime tsxyu
im sure hatton himself wold admit he was on his way out
but no one else was even close to gettin him to leave
hatton didnt just bump him out the door
he ***in pimp slapped him and told him to never return
bottom line
no one else was gonna do it
let alone like that

[Abe Attell]

Look guys, I realize there's alot of hate for Hatton on here but its not fair to take that win from him. Tszyu was older but he still just killed Mitchell a few months earlier. This is a different situation then Tarver & Jones because Tszyu never went up in weight.

Then you can start asking other questions if you want to get real deep in it. You can say, who has Tszyu ever really beat besides Zab? In the Zab fight he was even looking bad until that big punch.

I think Hatton beat a game Tszyu and he beat the same Tszyu that beat Mitchell. If Hatton wouldve fought Tszyu the same night that Tszyu fought Mitchell then Hatton still wouldve beat him. He is a bad matchup for Tszyu. He is fast and a pressure fighter. Tszyu hasnt faced anyone that put him on his heels since the Vince Phillips fight. Ever since then he has faced mostly bokers that are scared of him and most arent that good anyway.

If you want to take Hatton's win away then to me, you can take away Tszyu's whole career. I honestly dont believe that Tszyu looked any different in that fight then any other fight. He was just facing a guy who was just as big, faster, just as strong, and even more relentless.

Then you guys want to talk about being dirty? Tszyu has always been one of the dirtiest guys in boxing and he always uses rough house tactics. Now he gets a taste of his own medicine and you say its not fair? Hatton beat him fair & square and wouldve beaten him anywhere at any point in his career

The Mitchell fight was over to quickly, and Tszyu was also motivated because the majority counted him out; Tszyu usually does very well on the come-back. Like I stated before, not fighting often kills a fighter, words spoken by Carmen Basillio.



In the Hatton fight, there were rumors in training camp leading up to a couple of weeks for the fight, that Tszyu was having trouble trimming down the weight; it was proved right when Tszyu, looking deflated, couldn't make the weight the first time out...his legs especially, noted by his wife, along with the rest of him looked unusually skinny, even for a weigh-in. Tszyu was pouring sweat walking down to the ring; I did read it was very hot in the arena, I wonder who could of been responsible
The other mistake was listening to "Doctors" about not needing to adjust his clock for fight time...Tszyu should of tested it out before hand and not listen to Doctors...no offense to Doctors, but sometimes they know ****.

For the dropping of weight, I mentioned it because it is still weight loss, and it is at an age (in his mid 30's), where it starts to hurt a fighter because the hormone levels are not the same as when he was younger.

For Tszyu's career: He can be bashed a bit since he sometimes takes to much time off between fights, and I feel he should of moved up to 147 years ago, both because of his frame and because of the big fights against Shane Mosely, Oscar, Tito, and Forrest.

His ability also seemed to decline...he used to have great speed in his hands {which a lot of people seem to forget}, great head movement, agility, and aggression. He did manage to become a "better athlete" {in his words}, more strategic, but it still seemed he was declining with his ability, espeially that attitude of hunger/anger he seemed to have early on.
I blame Australia

[Abe Attell]

It's bull****, people just judge Hatton on his last three fights and think all he does is hold. It's an ugly style and I don't know why he's changed to it, but he has. It worked against Tszyu and I think he thinks if it worked against him itd work against anyone.

The win itself is and was great. No one on the planet thought Hatton would win, and he did. Tszyu was not shot, look at his three round destruction of Sharmba Mitchell. Everyone on here sucks Mayweather's ****, and it took him six rounds and that was AFTER Tszyu had annihilated him. It's pathetic. Hatton's style at the moment IS ugly. I totally agree, and hope he changes back soon cos he's not gonna win any fans basically being Britain's answer to John Ruiz, if a little more exciting. BUT the greatness of his victory over Tszyu should never be overlooked. IT was a fantastic win, one for the ages.

Hatton's whole team was saying why they were going to win:

Frank Warren said, "We got Tszyu at the Right Time", "We were able to give Ricky the advantage of fighting in his backyard"

Billy Graham and Ricky repeated the same thing throughout the promotion in interviews: "Kostya is 35 years old, while Ricky is young", "Kostya has only fought 9 rounds in 3 years"


If you go way back to the Zab Judah fight, though it didn't matter much, Kostya said he was going to study tapes from his early days of fighting, amatuer and early pro...Zab replied, "Kostya doesn't fight like that anymore, he can't, he is to old to go back"


The problem with people is that they are easily led into HYPE...just because Tszyu destroyed a scared Mitchell early, doesn't mean he was going to be capable of fighting 12 full rounds after missing so much time due to injury, especially at 35 year of age trying to make 140lbs.

Hatton's team knew this...it was also mentioned by Ray Leonard and Emanuel Steward that Ricky should be favored.

[armani_model]

Its still great, but i would rank calzaghe's fight with lacy a bigger achievement, the pure way he done it is one of Britains greatest performances in boxing.

[Xcel]

Its a good solid win, but not great.

[OptimusWolf]

I did read it was very hot in the arena, I wonder who could of been responsible

You think having the arena hot would help Hatton? Do you know anything about white European fighters and heat? There's no way Hatton would have been in anyway prepared to fight in hot conditions training for a 2am fight in Northern England, and he would be at a disadvantage in any arena that was hot, aka Mcguigan.

This thread is manky stale. Hattons win over Tszyu was a great victory. He got his tactics spot on and outwilled KT. However, that is Hattons only win over a A or B level fighter (on my definitions) and he hasn't looked anywhere near as good since, struggling to get off his shots and not showing quite the strength and stamina he had previously against Collazo.

But the Tszyu win was exceptional, because anyone who knows anything about boxing knows that Tszyu was an exceptional boxer.

[Deeznuts]

It was great victory for Hatton and a dissapointment to boxing fans. Dissapointment for all the favoritism Hatton got and all the dirty tactics he used in the fight. It was just wrong to see a fighter like Tszyu get treated like a wrestler. What really surprised me is why Tszuy quit the fight in the 11th. He seemed fine and wasn't really hurt in the 10th. Why quit with a round to go.