What can we expect from The Hitman?

Since his devastating knockout defeat to Manny Pacquiao, Hatton became a shadow of his former self, and has openly admitted he has contemplated suicide, taken drugs and nearly drank himself in to a black hole. Depression set in and the fun-loving Ricky Hatton was not there anymore. July 2011 he checked in to a rehab clinic and announced his retirement from the ring, he admitted himself that by doing this he gained closure on his career and was able to focus on getting his personal life sorted.

During his career he often ballooned in weight after a fight, and in retirement this became the norm. Any talk of a comeback by the press was usually met with high screeches of laughter, nobody believed that a man who had a fantastic career in the ten stone division, could balloon up to 15 stone, abuse his body the way he had and somehow manage to turn the corner, regain his fitness and find the desire to lace the gloves up once more.

However, we are now just hours away from one of the most anticipated come backs in recent memory. During the last twelve months Ricky started training fighters he promoted, his weight started to come down and soon he was back in the gym training. Rumours are he trained for fitness at first, not for any specific reason however through these sessions he rediscovered the hunger and desire to step inside the ring once more.

On 28th of September 2012 he announced that he would be making his comeback on 24th of November against former WBA World Champion Vyacheslav Senchenko. I personally have reservations about this comeback. I am as excited as anyone to see “The Hitman” back on our TV screens and back in a British ring, but the fight is taking place at Welterweight, a division where he has never looked comfortable. He has had two fights at the weight, one was the mega showdown against Floyd Mayweather JR in which he suffered a knockout defeat in ten rounds, the other was against Luis Collazo for the WBA World Title, a fight which although he won he never looked fantastic and came close to being stopped in the twelfth round.

However he has chosen this division and it is something he will have to live with, Senchenko is not a noted puncher, I personally believe this is why he has been picked for the comeback fight. However Colazzo was not a huge puncher at the weight and he shook Hatton up a number of times during their fight. Ricky has always been the take one to give two type of fighter, and if Senchenko can keep him on the end of his long jab and doesn’t allow him inside to work to the body Ricky could be in for a long and painful night. But one thing we can always say about Hatton is that he always found a way past the jab and to the body, and the longer the fight goes and the more Hatton shakes off the ring rust you have to believe this will eventually happen.

If Ricky does come through this fight and wins in style, more people could sit up and take notice. WBA Champion Paulie Malignaggi is over in the UK for this fight and is going to be working with Primetime UK on their coverage tonight, but the sceptical side of me believes part of his visit is a scouting mission. Having fought previously, and been stopped for the first time by Hatton, the American has always said he would like a rematch to put the record straight. If Ricky wins, this is very likely to be the next fight. Ricky would want it because it gives him a chance to win a world title pretty much straight away, Paulie wants it so he can set the record straight. If Ricky gets through Senchenko and Malignaggi then a potential huge UK showdown with either Amir Khan or Kel Brook could happen and that would probably be enough for Hatton to hang the gloves up for the final time.

The one unknown in all of this is how much he has left. If he is 75% of the fighter he was he wins tonight with relative ease, possibly inside the distance. If not then this will be a final goodbye for “The Hitman” and what a goodbye it would be. It was never right Hatton having his last fight in Las Vegas and a send of in Manchester is no more than a true British great deserves.

http://thecutman.wordpress.com/2012/11/24/what-can-we-expect-from-the-hitman/

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I think he will gas and if senchenko can get through the first 5 rounds without taking too many body shots he will wear hatton down. Senchenko isn't a puncher but Hatton was never the hardest to find and isn't a welterweight and got buzzed as you said by Collazo who himself wasn't a big puncher

15st to 10st6lbs is a hell of a lot of weight to cut and it can only hurt his body. Can he take a clean shot given the amount of weight cut? Can his legs take it? Does he have the speed to get inside as on the outside he will get chewed up by senchenko's size and jab

A lot of questions for him to answer and I don't think he will and could have made a huge mistake in picking a fringe world level operator like Senchenko

Good little read Hampo -

As anyone who has read my posts would know, I have never been as concerned as many regards this comeback. Nothing to do with being a huge Hatton fan but more because having interviewed him at the start of the year I heard first hand about his problems and you could sense that with boxing in his life he is in a much better place.

I actually began to have my reservations 2 weeks ago when I first saw that bruising around his eye. However that seems to have cleared up now and I hear that he actually got it when he caught whilst training one of his fighters...so nothing to do with sparring. Having seen the weigh in I actually think Hatton looks in very good nick (of course doesn't mean he still has it) but he doesn't look as drawn as he did in his final few fights and he actually seems to have got a little bigger around the chest area.

Of course there will come a day when he retires and it could be tomorrow...but I think that he truly does believe that win or lose he is much better prepared this time around. He wants to sign off on his terms and who are we to berate him for that. When I interviewed him he spoke at length about that dark night in Vegas and the thing he repeated a fair bit was that he felt he had his worst preparation of his career heading into the fight. Given the fall outs with Mayweather Snr in camp and the fact he peaked probably 2 weeks to early it's hard not to think that it wasn't perhaps the Hatton we all expected to see who turned up that night.

I am literally sat in the airport waiting for my flight to fly up as I am luckily covering this fight. I personally can not wait. The atmosphere will be electric and I can't think of anyone who brings the buzz to a boxing match that The Hitman does. I really hope he does well...not just for himself but because I think it would be a good to have Hatton around boxing a little longer.

Is virtually impossible to know, you always got the feeling so much of what Ricky acheived was based on his sheer size and strength at light welter and his ability to cram himself inside the 10 stome limit and still be effective. He is obviosuly not doing that this time round so cannot rely on his strength as a guaranteed asset.

However this is not to say he did not have ability, his shot selection could be excellent on occasions and at a level his movement was better than he gets credit for. It does seem he has really commited to this comeback and taken his training and weight making seriously so it is eminently possible he will have enough for Senchenko and you have to think the fact this is over 10 will help him but if Senchenko is still there after five and still fresh as WHu has alluded to this could well get interesting.

Suspect Ricky will find his way past Senchenko tonight but not without a few scary moments down the straight. In terms of the comeback generally, we have to be realistic, he is never going to be troubling the P4P rankings again, but a win tonight and if he can get past the seemingly inevitable Paulie rematch in the new year a fight against Brook or Khan in a football stadium next summer and you would have to consider this comeback a success, although I believe he would lose to both of those guys.

Agreed Rowley - (I refuse to bow down to the name change)

I hope people don't get carried away and start thinking Ricky should be doing this, that & the other regards to getting the likes of Pacman, Bradley etc.

Hatton has already secured his legacy and anything he can add to it on the back of this comeback will be a bonus.

I'm not sure I agree with you in that Khan beats Hatton. I would still make that a pick em (depending on Hatton's punch resistance tonight) purely because whilst Khan holds the advantage by some distance in speed and jab the one thing Hatton could always do was find a shot. Maussa, Castillo etc...I just have very little faith that Khan would not get found at least 2 or 3 times in a fight between the two and if he did I think it would be curtains. I mean some people forget that Hatton did manage to buzz Pacman in their very brief fight...something which I don't think I have seen anyone else do since the 2nd Morales fight!

I think Hatton will come out on the front foot right from the get-go tonight and aim to work Senchenko's body to drain the life out of him as soon as possible. Its his best chance. if Hatton starts lethargically and Senchenko finds his rythm i think he could lose a points decision here as Hatton will struggle for stamina in the later rounds because of his lack of ring action in the last 3 years.

If Hatton gets through Senchenko and then takes Malignaggis belt, AND Brook takes a version of the belt of Alexander in January, then you have to say the winner from an anticipated Hatton V Brook is in a brilliant position with 2 of the 4 major titles around their waist.

Maybe Hatton V FMJ/Pacman isn't such a fantasy after all.
Indeed it sounds far fetched, and personally i'd prefer to see an improved Brook in with the ageing elite, but I suppose we'll have to wait and see.

Hatton used to gas after 6 rounds. So I expect him to gas after 3. Then it'll be mug and maul. Expect the ref to not bother with breaking them up. This really could be a horrible fight.

we can expect a load of patronising nonesense about being a man of the people, whilst he lives the high life, rips his fans off and milks every second he can stick around as centre of attention. he is possibly the most vain and greediest man i have ever met, and i work in the music industry

Lance wrote:we can expect a load of patronising nonesense about being a man of the people, whilst he lives the high life, rips his fans off and milks every second he can stick around as centre of attention. he is possibly the most vain and greediest man i have ever met, and i work in the music industry

LOL happy he's back then Lance? - I haven't heard him talking in the 3rd person since his comeback, maybe he's a changed man.

Hatton will have prepared for this like no other fight - previously he had the weight of a nation on his shoulders (Pacquiao/Mayweather) and he in his own mind, let us down. He gave a valiant showing against Mayweather, he wasn't exactly disgraceful, and he openly admitted that Mayweather was a class above, he then went on to take on the devastating Pacquiao who was just coming into his pomp as a true force for the world to see. It wouldn't surprise me if he'd trained twice as hard, done twice as much sparring and done twice as much running to get to this stage. He's never had to shift such a ridiculous amount of weight before - he used to balloon, but never to the stage he got to. Getting down from 15 stone is no mean feat, I can tell you.

I have this weird feeling he's going to blast Senchenko out very early with the force of a thousand rockets up his backside. He'll have to change the way he fights, and I get this weird feeling his strength will be his main asset tonight over his ability to take a punch. Lets not forget, Pacquiao's punch would have levelled a heavyweight (or shaken them) so we can't assume he has no punch resistance. He always marked up easily, its sadly the side effect of being a very very white british northerner. I mark up in my fights sometimes so I know how he feels.

Back to my earlier point, he no longer has the expectation of a nation on him, but the expectation of himself. He has a burning desire to make everyone proud of him, he doesn't need money, he doesn't need legacy, he wants to make everyone remember him post Kostya Tzsyu, not post Pacquiao, and that will be some feat to accomplish. Something I feel he'll do in style.

I think hatton was insanely over rated in his heyday, a very crude boxer who had little in terms of ability, but having met him countless times, he really is a top drawer bloke, honestly one of the best guys I've met, and he's infectious, so if he says this is his return to the big time, I believe him.

This man of the people stuff is a load of rubbish Lance, I agree. If he was a man of the people this fight would be on ITV.

Lance wrote:we can expect a load of patronising nonesense about being a man of the people, whilst he lives the high life, rips his fans off and milks every second he can stick around as centre of attention. he is possibly the most vain and greediest man i have ever met, and i work in the music industry

I see you spouting utter claptrap as usual, if you've met Hatton and have this opinion of him then you must be one of the biggest tissue stains going.

Stop insulting people.....JM

He has a right to his opinion..

He is vain Lance ..but I think he is on the rebound from losing his promotional portfolio with sky.....

Hatton easy for me..

No need for the insults jab, especially when you cry like a little girl everytime someone reminds you of your past behaviour.

He'll get you kicked off for saying that...

Lumbering_Jack wrote:No need for the insults jab, especially when you cry like a little girl everytime someone reminds you of your past behaviour.

You're not worth the response.

Is Trusswum insulting me? I don't want to have to rip him apart again for the mods sake, he's been warned enough about it.

I wouldn't insult you............You're out of my league..

Especially in the ring...

TRUSSMAN66 wrote:I wouldn't insult you............You're out of my league..

Especially in the ring...

The only ring JM has been close to is one involving his tongue.

JabMachineMK2 wrote:

Lumbering_Jack wrote:No need for the insults jab, especially when you cry like a little girl everytime someone reminds you of your past behaviour.

You're not worth the response.

Is Trusswum insulting me? I don't want to have to rip him apart again for the mods sake, he's been warned enough about it.

You couldn't rip a paper bag.

Careful Lumbering Jack, this guy has been in with Kell Brook

joeyjojo618 wrote:Careful Lumbering Jack, this guy has been in with Kell Brook

I'd much rather be in Kelly Brook...