Calling out fighters you thought got a pass

[Gandalf The Black]

lloyd mayflower Wrote:

Gandalf The Black Wrote:

STEVENSKI Wrote:

Gandalf The Black Wrote: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!

How many fights has Floyd, Roy, Hopkins, DLH & Mosley have outside the USA in total?

Roy: Two both extremely late in his career when he was as done as minute steak cooked for a hour.
Hopkins: had one when he went on the road to win his first real belt & none as a champion. Two in Canada very late in his career.
DLH: Zero
Mosley: Zero

Lets be real here. Hatton ducked no one, fought anyone & fought anywhere. See the thing is that great fighters can fight at home provided

They generate huge gates
They generate maximum buzz in their country
They import the best fighters they can to fight

Not many do that but Hatton certainly did. As for avoiding competition I would be interested to see who you thought he avoided?

In the same fashion that the Beatles didn't become "The Beatles" till they set foot in America. The same applies to the sport of boxing. The mecca of boxing is Madison Square Garden. The point that I'm trying to make is that you're not anybody music or boxing wise until you conquer America.

Hatton and Calzaghe were protected in the fashion that they didn't leave their own backyards to seek out better competition. When they did, one got knocked out twice in three fights. The other fought past their prime fighters.Even Jeff Lacy had to travel to England to Fight Calzaghe. Joe fought a brilliant fight, I give him that. Roy and Hopkins were old when they fought Joe(both still managed to drop him). When Jones was young, he was Superman!!! Super-fast, super-strong and super-skilled. Would have tore Calzaghe up. Remember Jones was coming up two of his worst fights that ended in KO.

I'm not trying to make this into a childish US VS UK crap. If Manny never fought outside the Philipines, I would say the same thing.

Ricky Hatton built up possibly the biggest travelling army of sports fans there has ever been. Only in football are there travelling supports that rival what he took to Vegas for the Floyd fight, and in football, only Scotland and England get close to regular travelling supports of that magnitude. 40,000 people travelling across half the world to see one fighter in one fight is unheard of. Do you know how expensive it is to go to Vegas from here? I do cos I did it 4 times for fights. That shit has never been done by anyone else, the money Ricky Hatton generated over here was immense. America had nothing to offer Ricky except the fight against Floyd which he got for himself (And the PPV money from the UK he earned was huge)

After Kostya Tszyu was dethroned, Ricky was top of the pile at 140, in the ring and at the negotiating table. Like I said earlier, on this subject he is beyond reproach. MSG might be the Mecca of boxing, but it has never seen a night like the one in the MGM when a little short armed drunk turned it into mini Manchester.

Lennox Lewis and Prince Naseem both fought outside of the UK. Both had large followings and they came to the States to watch them fight. I specifically remember the Lewis/Tyson fight. You could barely here the announcers from all the British fans.

The states having nothing to offer Hatton is pure Bollocks(hope I spelled that right). You're nothing in boxing if you haven't fought the best. Sometimes that requires a plane ticket.

If you apply what you said to football(soccer), English Professional Football players should only play each other and never play other countries? Because they have a large following and other countries have nothing to offer with regards to competition?