Ricky Hatton announces retirement (1 Viewer)

Ha ha ha what a joke, like this announcement needed to be made. Did anybody on this forum actually think that he was going to have another fight? He has been embarrassed at the peak of his career by two of the best light welterweight boxers of all time. Hatton was a lesser man than these two and following his defeat has set a bad example to all aspiring athletes. Good riddance.

Bit harsh on him that, there is no embarrassment in losing to two all time greats. He was never an elite level fighter, but he did well with what he had.

I was never a big Hatton fan myself, but he fought brilliantly against an admittedly past prime Kostya Tszyu.

What complete and utter fucking bollocks!!!!!!

How can he have been embarrassed by two of the best light welterweights of all time?? Soundly beaten yes but embarrased? That doesn't even make sense!! He must have been half decent to even step in the ring with them. Oh and incidentally Mayweather is a Welterweight.

Set a bad example? He did a bit of coke. Hang him.

Fact is that Hatton was one of the best British boxers we have had for a long time and his performance against Tsyzu was one of the best we have seen in recent years against a magnificent fighter and another Hall of Famer. His friendly down to earth attitude endeared him to the general public which led to approximately 20,000 of us flying over to Vegas to see him take on one of the greatest fighters of all time. (In my opinion).

This country is always the same support them when they're doing well and then kick them when they're down. Haye is another prime example of this.

To slag Hatton off for having the guts and talent to take on Mayweather and the Pacman is unbelievable. :jerkit:

Hats off to Hatton, he provided us with some great nights over the years and from a personal point of view that night at the MEN when he defeated Tszyu was probably the greatest sporting occasion I have attended.

Good to see he has retired and not continuing on past his best like RJJ, Holyfield, Danny Williams etc.

What?

This is like someone telling me my nan's dead. I was certain he was already retired.

The RJJ thing saddens me greatly. Probably my favourite boxer of the last 20 years reduced to a shadow his former self. He'd have done Calzaghe in 3 rounds in his prime.

Ernie Machin said:

The RJJ thing saddens me greatly. Probably my favourite boxer of the last 20 years reduced to a shadow his former self. He'd have done Calzaghe in 3 rounds in his prime.

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Not often that I disagree with you Ernie, but I do here. Don't get me wrong I loved watching Hatton in many of his fights. Some were proper tear-ups which were explosive and exciting. The kind of thing which puts bums on seats and shows what an honest fighter he was which is largely why he was so popular, but I can't have that he would have beat Calzaghe at all let alone in three.

I was sometimes disappointed with JC in his fights and although if you look at his record it reads better than he was, since he fought lots of people past their best and probably should have lost to Robin Ried, but there is nothing to base on that he would have lost so convincingly. I think he was probably too smart for Ricky and would not have let himself get drawn into a brawl. In a brawl there would only be one winner, but I think Joe would have done a similar job on him to what to happened to Haye on Saturday and win without really hurting him.

RJJ = Roy Jones Junior. Just to clarify!

rob9872 said:

Not often that I disagree with you Ernie, but I do here. Don't get me wrong I loved watching Hatton in many of his fights. Some were proper tear-ups which were explosive and exciting. The kind of thing which puts bums on seats and shows what an honest fighter he was which is largely why he was so popular, but I can't have that he would have beat Calzaghe at all let alone in three.

I was sometimes disappointed with JC in his fights and although if you look at his record it reads better than he was, since he fought lots of people past their best and probably should have lost to Robin Ried, but there is nothing to base on that he would have lost so convincingly. I think he was probably too smart for Ricky and would not have let himself get drawn into a brawl. In a brawl there would only be one winner, but I think Joe would have done a similar job on him to what to happened to Haye on Saturday and win without really hurting him.

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The fact that Joe fought at 2 or 3 weight classes higher than Hatton may have had some bearing on it as well.

Anyway, i'm with Earnie in that a prime Roy Jones Junior destroys Calzaghe. And destroys him early. Simply sensational in his day.

Ah my bad sorry Ern, I thought you were suggesting that if the weights were the same then RH would have dumped JC.

To be fair to JC he was class against Lacy and although its some time since I saw his bout against Eubank, he made light work of beating him and I rate Eubank as a great boxer too. He also looked good against Kessler who everyone siad could be the one to beat him at the time.

The things like Hopkins are what tarnishes it imo. Hopkins was old and it was still only close - I think that's where people draw the Roy Jones line through to say that he would have beat him in his prime since when they did finally get it on Jones was merely a shadow.

Either way I still don't think that JC gets anything like the credit he deserves for what he did achieve.

rob9872 said:

What?

This is like someone telling me my nan's dead. I was certain he was already retired.

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Just watched Hatton's retirement interview (http://www.hattonboxing.com/tv/news/ricky-hatton-officially-retires about 50 mins long) and he says that the only reason he is announcing this is that he keeps getting linked to fights when the likes of Khan or Maidana win their fights so he wants to make it 100% clear to his fans that he definitely won't be fighting again.

Although can't see this stopping it as Lewis is still linked to big fights and he retired 8 years ago!!!

Aware of the weight differences LG, as explained I misunderstood and thought he was talking hypothetical about recent British boxers as the thread was originally about Ricky.

LastGarrison said:

Just watched Hatton's retirement interview (http://www.hattonboxing.com/tv/news/ricky-hatton-officially-retires about 50 mins long) and he says that the only reason he is announcing this is that he keeps getting linked to fights when the likes of Khan or Maidana win their fights so he wants to make it 100% clear to his fans that he definitely won't be fighting again.

Although can't see this stopping it as Lewis is still linked to big fights and he retired 8 years ago!!!

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Pretty sure if he needed to that Lewis could still win today if he chose to and would have definitely put up a better showing than Haye did last week.

I know it was tongue in cheek hence the whistling smiley.

Back to your point on Calzaghe, I like him and the way he adapted after busting up his hand early in his career was amazing. Imagine how good he would have been if he could have thrown 100% power punches with that right?

However, I think he doesn't get the plaudits because although he retired undefeated his record isn't littered with big names and because of his reluctance to fight outside of Britain. I heard a great quote from him once about how he wished he was born 10 years earlier so he could have took on Benn, Eubank, Watson and Collins in their prime and for whatever reasons (read money) the fights were never made with Hopkins and RJJ. Again though because of his reluctance to fight outside of the UK he wasn't a "big" name in the US so the money and interest was never there for him to fight them 2.

This is why I don't think he will ever be held in the highest regard when you talk about the very best boxers.

rob9872 said:

What?

This is like someone telling me my nan's dead. I was certain he was already retired.

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Seconded. Except my nan being alive.

LastGarrison said:

I know it was tongue in cheek hence the whistling smiley.

Back to your point on Calzaghe, I like him and the way he adapted after busting up his hand early in his career was amazing. Imagine how good he would have been if he could have thrown 100% power punches with that right?

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Fair point, although Calzaghe has been slappy at times.

Ricky was a great boxer but nowhere in the class of pachio but there is no shame in that, he had a great career but i thought he retired years ago!!!

A few points in reply...

The point I was making was that his retirement was not news. Despite being tenuously linked to fights we all know that he probably would never be able to get down to the weights required to step into the ring again. Lewis is still linked to fights because he has kept himself in shape and could probably still compete in the ring but for me George Foreman looks in better shape than Hatton does.

I don't want to go over every trivial point made against my post such as apologies for getting Mayweather's weight wrong. I agree that embarrassing was a bit strong but I was just offering my opinion that he should never have made those trips to take on Mayweather and after his performance there shouldn't for me have even had a shot against Pacqiao.

I was not specifically referring to the drugs when I said about being a bad role model I was talking about how he had a gift and like lots of other athletes let himself go.

Finally, comparing him to Haye is a joke. This preseason on this forum there has been no end of use of the word 'Franchise player'. Haye is exactly that, before last weekend he was a world champion in a division of no personality pulling in more money than anyone else by having a big personality and talent in the ring also.

The Era of Benn, Eubanks, Collins and Watson was for me, the best time in British Boxing.
And the Eubanks v Collins fights were fantastic