Time for the Hitman to ring the bell
3rd Feb 2010

Out Cold: A broken Hatton after his brief encounter with Pacquiao
In case you saw coverage of the Australian Open and thought to yourself, ‘who’s that chubby little monster in the crowd the TV cameraman keeps panning to?’ during Andy Murray’s semi final victory, it turns out it was Ricky Hatton. He’s changed a bit hasn’t he?
Now when I saw this I thought fair enough, the lad’s just enjoying his retirement, I mean he’s earned it in recent years taking a pounding against superior opposition. But then I turned on Sky Sports News and everything changed. That yellow ticker tape of breaking news was scrolling by, I thought probably just another of John Terry’s indiscretions, or maybe Neil Warnock’s actually accepted a loss without placing the blame at the referee’s door, but instead I got something much more shocking, this chubby little monster was to return to ring.

Ricky Fatton: The Hitman has obviously been enjoying a break from boxing
Now Ricky Hatton’s website states that the Hitman has been keeping busy inside and outside the gym, although judging by recent pictures of Hatton if you were to venture inside Ricky’s gym you would be a lonely figure. He recently declared his intention to return to the ring in 2010 and although a specific date remains elusive as yet, he speaks firmly of his desire to don the gloves once more.
However, this return to boxing, nine months after his catastrophic and humiliating second round defeat against Manny Pacquiao, has prompted many to question the wisdom of Hatton’s desire to fight once again. The defeat against Pacquiao, so violent and comprehensive, was thought to signal the end of an illustrious boxing career of one of England’s favourite sons. However, recent noises from Hatton’s own channel, Hatton TV, suggest a possible fight against Juan Manuel Marquez before the end of the year. Surely the motivation for this is pride; to end his career with a victory rather than flat on his back, semi conscious and semi naked in Las Vegas (although that doesn’t sound too bad) but a victory against a journeyman opponent would prove nothing.
Hatton himself said: “If I won the next fight I would probably call it a day… I don’t want the last memory of me to be lying on my back” but then completely contradicted this by saying: “I’ve boxed at such a high level and I could not have one more fight and people look at me and go ‘he’s just had this fight just to knock someone over and end on top’. I want people to say ‘give Ricky his credit — he finished at the top’.” Ricky, I’m sorry but you can’t have it both ways, either you want to simply finish with a win and that’s fine, if it’s an issue of pride go ahead, you only have yourself to convince, or rather you want to be the best and fight the best, which, although commendable, is unrealistic, finishing at the top is not really an option any more.









Comments
3rd February 2010
12:05 pm
GREAT ARTICLE. However this argument, which has been going on since the Pac Man fight, is wrong. In the same sport, there is a boxer named Miguel Cotto. Knocked out and BATTERED by Pac and Antonio ‘Plaster of Paris’ Margarito; he is moving up to light middleweight to fight Yuri Foreman for his belt. Not only did Ricky Hatton not take the punishment that Cotto took, his opposition was at a weight they were more comfortable with — Mayweather — welter and Pac — light welter — both of whom are top 50 All Time Greats. Just to conclude, no other group of sport fans in the world would demand an athlete retire at the age of 31 and suffering only two defeats in forty seven.
Feel free to comment — J Rowe(Report comment)
4th February 2010
1:01 pm
I appreciate the comment but what I was trying to say in the article is that in my opinion any future Hatton fights would be ones to simply restore pride and I dont really think that he needs to do that. I dont profess to be a boxing expert but from where I was sitting he was humiliated by Pacqiuao, the only reason why he wasnt battered was because he lasted less than 2 rounds and he was outclassed my Mayweather, admittedly two of the all time greats. However, this just says to me that he has nothing to prove, hes got the money, won belts, had his shot against the best and came up short, noones questioning his record, so to fight again against a average opponent would prove nothing, other than allowing Hatton to say, i finished on a win. also im not demanding he retire at 31, just suggesting that any illusions Hatton has of ‘finishing at the top’ are unrealistic, if he couldnt do it at his peak I doubt his body could take on the very best now. the aim of this article wasnt to bash hatton, rather to question what really could be gained from fighting again.(Report comment)
5th February 2010
12:00 am
Thanks for the reply. I agree that Hatton has had an incredible career, and has lost to the two greatest boxers since Leonard. But I believe I have the perfect example of why Hatton should not necessarily retire … regardless of his abilty to beat the pac man and the pretty boy.
George Foreman — In 1974 he suffered his one and only knockout defeat at the hands of the greatest ‘heavyweight’ of all time (Sugar Ray Robinson is the greatest boxer of all time). He had lost his aura of invincibility he had acheived in knocking out Frazier and Norton. His greatest achievement in his extraordinary career did not come in the aftermath of that brutal knockout; it came 20 years later when he knocked out Michael Moorer to become the oldest heavyweight champion (IBF and WBA) of all time at 45 years old.
While I am by no means comparing Hatton to Foreman; boxing fans are too quick to write off thier favourite boxers once they realise that they are only human. We dont know what the future will hold for Hatton as he still has the drive to fight.
And to conclude, in terms of legacy; Light Welterweight and Welterweight are the two best divisions in boxing, a huge win in either division will put an end to all of these discussions … at least until his next loss.(Report comment)
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