Calling out fighters you thought got a pass

[ROLLDEEP]

lloyd mayflower Wrote:

Gandalf The Black Wrote:

Fitz Wrote:I disagree with a few. Hopkins was not way past his prime, he was just years past where he was best, but was a top 3-5 p4p fighter. Calzaghe beat a very good fighter period. You're not ranked top 5 p4p in the world, without being good.
Hatton has fights with Tszyu, Mayweather and Hatton. I don't think he was overly protected, I would say he was more a little unnoticed until he had his breakout fight with Tszyu. Had a very credible run IMO.

I also didn't think Jones walked away from the Tarver fights unscathed, I would say they hurt his reputation (rightly or wrongly) to a few people. I thought Jones got punished enough for the losses.

How many fights did Hatton have outside the UK before he fought Floyd? He almost lost his American debut fight against Collazo then got creamed by Floyd and Pacquiao. I just looked Hatton's record on Boxrec. Every single fight he had was in the UK(Including Tszyu) before the Collazo fight. Protected....maybe not. Avoiding competition......maybe so!

Hatton was filling arenas over here from an early point in his career and he got the main man Tszyu over here to fight him. There was no reason for him to cross the pond until he did. And when the opportunity came to make big fights in America, he leapt at it. Ricky Hatton can be called out for many things, but being overly cautious or protected is not one of them. He ditched Frank Warren and had to go through a legal battle with him because he felt Warren wasn't bringing him the fights he deserved.

Exactly.

He was built up steadily, built up a strong fan base and when the time was right, he fought the very best he could.


I have no problem in fighters having a well thought out career and building up experience so long as they actually DO fight the best at some point....and Hatton did that.


As far as not fighting out of the UK....if you're generating the kind of interest and money Hatton was, why should he?