by Dafs117
British boxing froze midway through 2008 and somebody came along to press the F5 button that all stream-watchers have pressed countless times during the past 12 months. It gave British boxing, and the live stream, a refresh. We had a makeover, a transformation and many passing of torches.
Joe Calzaghe retired, and opened the door to Carl Froch. The first major passing of the torch in British boxing over the course of the year. Froch won the WBC Super Middleweight title in a scrap against Jean Pascal, before travelling to the States to stop Jermain Taylor late, and defending his title for the second time in the Super 6 Boxing Classic tournament, against Andre Dirrell, winning via close split decision.
Ricky Hatton’s retirement is inevitable. He might come back to be stopped by either Marquez or Cotto in a one sided affair, but he will leave a fan-base behind. Ricky Hatton passed his smouldering flame to King Amir Khan, who went 3-0 with wins over a one-eyed Marco Antonio Barrera, former paper champion Andreas Kotelnik and previously unbeaten Dimitry Salita.
by dafs117After hibernating since May, Ricky Hatton is coming back. He's going to put down his pint and bacon butty, rip four stones off that small frame to get into fighting trim for the tough Mexican Juan Manuel Marquez. I can't say this is the best news I've heard in a while, for British boxing or for Hatton.
Fighters fight for one of two reasons. Money or glory. Hatton says he doesn't need the former, not more than any other millionaire desperately needs more money, so he must miss the applause, the buzz or, as he put it last week, "the itch". That's not a good reason to take a suspect chin back into a boxing ring. He was brutally knocked out by the great Filipino Manny Pacquiao six months ago, and his chin hasn't grown any muscles since, and he risks humiliation this time.
The sport is addictive, as nearly any former fighter will tell you, but you don't kick the habit by getting beaten up in public, especially by such an accomplished operator as Marquez who, although outclassed, went the distance with Floyd Mayweather Jr. only two months ago and ran Manny Pacquiao close, twice. So Ricky wants to fight the man who was competitive with the only two fighters he himself has lost to, badly.
All this fight will do is feed Hatton's addiction. No apologies here for repeating something Barry McGuigan says on repeat “boxers are the first ones to know when to quit and the last to admit it.”
If a 31 year old Hatton does the impossible and gets past Marquez, he won't stop there. He will be growing older by the round. If Marquez doesn't get him, someone else will, someone tougher, younger, someone who will see him as a stepping stone.
There is another reason Hatton should not fight again, his drinking. He has always said his lifestyle makes him what he is. It gives him a thrill. He lives two hundred miles an hour, and trains at the same speed. In his mind you can't have one without the other.
Hatton knows the sport inside out and he has seen great fighters go one fight too many, Kostya Tszyu, for instance. That was Hatton’s finest night by a mile, Saturday, 4 June, 2005, at a packed MEN Arena. He was inspired. But he knows he caught Tszyu on the last leg of a long journey, and so does Tszyu.
Tszyu also has been tempted a few times to fight again, and so far, has resisted the urge. Let's hope it stays that way because he would do nothing but ruin our memories of him.
And I'm afraid that is what Hatton is getting ready to do. He’s been a terrific character, great to get Britain back into boxing, but there comes a time in sport where a sportsman must call it a day.
That last point is half the problem. Ricky is desperate to please his fans, the 30,000 and more who followed him to Las Vegas, a travelling circus who lit up boxing like probably no other fans could.
But Ricky needs to step back from the roar of the crowd because it is distant and fading. They're not the ones taking the punches. Their health is not at risk.
The real warning signs for Hatton arrived in the weeks before he fought Pacquiao. A young Cuban light-middleweight called Erislandy Lara gave Ricky such a tough time in sparring in Las Vegas he was kicked out of the camp.
Lara is a serious prospect (he is unbeaten in eight contests with five KOs) and much bigger than Hatton. So what was this young monster doing in a ring with Hatton so close to a big fight? What genius brought in a big man to prepare Ricky to fight a smaller, quicker man?
That camp was the worst preparation Hatton could have had for Pacquiao. Floyd Mayweather Sr, a defensive master if slightly eccentric, was marginalised and, ultimately ignored. Hatton went to the ring with a divided team and it showed in the short time the fight lasted.
Hatton looked as if he were fighting on roller skates. His balance was awry and his judgment of space and distance was awful. He fought like a desperate man. While he did himself no favours with what passed for strategy, it was still no disgrace to lose to a wonderful champion, but the piercing scream from ringside by his girlfriend Jennifer when he hit the canvas in round two should have been the only voice he listened to. It should have been the final bell for Hatton, but it seems not.
There was chaos in the corner and in Hatton's mind. That confusion, which begun in the Mayweather fight and resurfaced in May, does not seem to have gone away. Ricky still thinks he can do in the ring what his brain tells him. It would be a fairytale if he did come back. But boxing is about reality, as Hatton knows better than most.
He said before fighting Mayweather: "There's no more honest place in sport than the boxing ring. You can't tell lies in there, you can't pretend."
I'm afraid that is exactly what he is doing now.
When Ricky Hatton was laid flat, by a left hook in his second-round knockout loss against Manny Pacquiao in May, few people thought that Hatton would fight at world level ever again. Even the Brit hinted on many occasions that his arm chair was calling, but in a new twist, Hatton “has felt the buzz” from seeing his promoted fighters win over the past months.
A fight against his friend Amir Khan has caught the imaginations of some British fans in dreamland, but it seems ever more likely that ‘The Hitman’ will fight Mexican Juan Manuel Marquez in a true crossroads bout.
Marquez recently moved up two weight classes as he challenged Floyd Mayweather Jr. but struggled to win a round against the five weight world champion in September. Mayweather has also stopped Ricky Hatton in the tenth round.
Both fighters are said to be interested in the fight, and have begun talks to fight in Hatton’s hometown of Manchester. No date has been discussed and they’re most likely to meet at the light welterweight limit of 140 pounds.
Is this a fight for the fans or promoters? And is there any hope for Hatton? Discuss...
Manny Pacquiao KO 2 Ricky Hatton, 5/2/2009
Manny Pacquiao RTD 8 Oscar De la Hoya, 12/6/2008
Manny Pacquiao TKO 10 Erik Morales,
Manny Pacquiao TKO 11 Marco Antonio Barrera, 11/15/2003
You could feel the tension in the air as the tide started turning against Golden Boy prospect, Victor Ortiz, this past Saturday at the Staples Center.
(Updated Throughout the Day)
According to CNN and USA Today, early indications from cable companies indicate that the Pacquiao/Hatton PPV last Saturday could end up with as many as two million buys. Initial estimates were firmly placed at the one million mark and some in the industry felt that the economy, combined with the fact that neither fighter was American, would negatively impact the buy rate.
the new readers generated by The BTBC's newest addition- The BTBC...Boxing With a Bite! The new blog will be for hard news and analysis while the wordpress blog will be for our usual essays and such. I will have a more active role in the new blog, so if I've picked on your favorite fighter and made you as an enemy, you probably might want to stay away from it. Otherwise, rely on The BTBC to be a trusted news source for all things boxing-related. For awhile, at least, this column will be published on both blogs.Floyd Mayweather Jr. tried to upstage the Manny/Ricky Show by announcing his official comeback against Juan Manuel Marquez on July 18th. I see this fight kinda like how I see having a new smoke detector: I'm glad to have it, but not too jazzed about seeing it implemented. Just as I said that Pacquiao/Hatton would be a mismatch, so is Mayweather vs. Marquez. But as my "ladies" must do when they see this 300 lb. body lunging at them- Marquez should just take his screwing and keep counting all the loot in his head.
Chad Dawson and Antonio Tarver will be fighting this coming Saturday in the most pointless sequel since Blues Brothers 2000. Unfortunately, this may be the last fight for Dawson against anyone even remotely marketable at Light Heavyweight. Dawson may be forced to drop in weight and wade through the fall-out at 168 for some better matches. On the plus side, we get another chance to visually fondle Tarver's HOT wife.
Apparently, the Wladimir Klitschko/David Haye encounter is a big-ticket item in Europe, selling out a soccer stadium in Germany and sending fans scrambling to scalpers for tickets to the Heavyweight Title bout. Well, guys, save your money and just re-watch the second round of Pacquiao/Hatton. The part of Ricky Hatton will be played by Mr. Hayemaker Haye.
In "real" fight news: I can't wait for the next six weeks or so: Andre Ward vs. Edison Miranda, Alfred Angulo vs. Kermit Cintron, Miguel Cotto vs. Joshua Clottey...Plus, the comeback of Rafael Marquez!
Bob Arum is dispelling any notion of a Pacquiao/Mayweather fight by promising Pacquiao/Cotto in December. Arum has wanted nothing to do with Mayweather for the longest time, despite stories to the contrary. But pay no attention to the man with the grey chest hair and boxing glove-shaped liver spots, Arum's playing kissy face with Cotto to make up for backing the man who beat his face in with bricks back in July '08 (aka Margarito).
Ok, that's all for this week. Those spicy buffalo wings I ate this afternoon are dying to take a swim in my porcelain pool. So, with Ring Magazine in hand, I'll close this out with my favorite sound bite from Saturday's Mayweather/Marquez press conference, See ya ladies next week:
“I beat fighters and turn them into bitches and they go out and put on fish-nets.” - Floyd Mayweather Jr.
Both Ricky Hatton and Manny Pacquiao made weight for their fight on Saturday night...and if they didn't...? So what? It's not like a real title is on the line or anything.
