Haye to Hatton: Don’t listen to the haters

By ESB - 11/23/2012 - Comments

Haye to Hatton: Don't listen to the hatersBy Michael Collins: Former two division world champion David Haye gave a bit of encouragement to Ricky Hatton for his fight on Saturday night against Vyacheslav Senchenko, telling him not to listen to the criticism from fans and the media about his comeback fight.

Haye said on his site at hayemaker.com “Wishing you good luck tomorrow. Don’t listen to the haters. Just go out and do your thing. I know you wouldn’t be coming back if it wasn’t for a reason. I think you have a little something left. You have a little something up your sleeve. I wouldn’t be surprised to see. Go out and do your thing. Stay healthy.”

I never really saw Hatton’s problems in the past stemming from confidence or lack thereof. That to me seemed to be the last of Hatton’s problems. I think Hatton’s problems were more of a case of his lack of defense, his wild fighting style, and his inability to take hard head shots. It was a combination of things that was ultimately Hatton’s undoing when he got to the upper levels of the welterweight division. It wasn’t just one thing.

Hatton will probably do well against Senchenko on Saturday night because they’ve obviously scouted Senchenko out really well, and no doubt wouldn’t be fighting him if he were a real threat. Senchenko’s loss to Paulie Malignaggi last April has obviously given Hatton and his team the confidence that they can beat this guy without any problems.

The fight is taking place in Manchester, Hatton’s home city, and I can’t see the referee stepping in to break the action if Hatton chooses to fight on the inside. Hatton had problems fighting outside of Manchester when he went to the U.S and took on Mayweather. The referee working the fight Joe Cortez didn’t allow Hatton to fight in close like he’d been accustomed to doing. One of Hatton’s problems is that when he fights in close he’s often not really busy like normal inside fighters.

Hatton does a lot of wrestling type moves with his arms before throwing punches, and that kind of thing leads referees to separate the fighters. That likely be a problem tomorrow night with the fight taking place in Manchester, so Hatton will likely be able to stay inside all night long and fight at a slow pace without a referee stepping to break them for lack of action.