07.04.04 – By Don Deane – With Zab Judah moving up to Welterweight and Kostya Tszyu on the disabled list, it seems that Sharmba Mitchell rivals Arturo Gatti for the top of the pile at 140 pounds. You can’t rank Floyd Mayweather up there yet since he has not fought at this weight.
The question is, where do we rank Ricky Hatton? Hatton is in the same boat as Mayweather in the sense that Hatton has fought at 140, but he hasn’t fought any meaningful fights. Decent wins over a washed up Freddie Pendleton, post prime Vince Phillips and trial horse Ben Tackie prove Hatton worthy of a spot in the lower end of the top 10, maybe 6th tops. And for all the Dennis Pederson bashers, a win over Kelson Pinto wouldn’t have proved anything either. Pinto is 20-0, but 5 of those wins came against guys making their pro debuts. His only accomplishment is being one a select few (try 21) fighters to defeat Emmanuel Augustus. The win over Pederson was good to keep conditioning and stay active. Hatton certainly doesn’t want a guy pulling out to force him into a layoff. And the row Junior Witter was making rightfully was ignored as well. Witter, Hatton and most importantly Frank Warren all know that a Hatton-Witter fight is much more lucrative than the money raked in for the Hatton-Pinto promotion and is much more useful at a later date. And let’s be honest here, Witter and Pederson were both 0-1 against top level competition when Warren made his choice of substitutes. So why risk the future money by throwing Hatton in there with the awkward Witter when Hatton has trained all along to fight Pinto, who is a noted slugger.
Unfortunately that justification for Hatton-Pederson dodges the real issue. This was Hatton’s 35th professional fight. He is six and a half years into his professional career and fighting these kinds of fights. Here are a few names. Angel Manfredy, Stevie Johnston, Kostya Tszyu, Jose Luis Castillo. These are the fighters Arturo Gatti, Sharmba Mitchell, Zab Judah and Floyd Mayweather JR. were fighting at roughly six years into their professional careers. As for fight numbers, Manfredy-Gatti was Gatti’s 31st fight. Johnston-Mitchell was the 32nd fight for Sharmba, Tszyu-Judah was Zab’s 28th fight and Castillo-Mayweather was Floyd’s 28th fight. All of these fighters were fighting tougher competition earlier and 3 of the 4 were already world champions at some point prior to the aforementioned fights. In his 35 fights and six or so years all Hatton has managed are the WBU belt and a change of address. The guy fights at the MEN arena so much they now send his mail there.
To rectify this viewpoint, and this columnist is merely one of many who holds it, Hatton needs to fight Sharmba Mitchell on June 5. The card is even at the MEN arena so he won’t have to travel. Most polls would suggest Hatton won’t win, but out of the four fights listed above, Mayweather was the only fighter to win. If he gets by Mitchell, get in there with Witter to kill time and appease the British masses. After that, set up a title shot against Tszyu, Gatti, Mayweather (if he isn’t in jail by then), or whoever else owns one of the belts. Assuming a victory, Hatton would be 38-0, a recognized champion and have 2 very legitimate scalps on his belt. That would make Hatton very credible, very rich, and very respected.
It is Hatton’s time to step up or step aside as this division is full of guys like Cotto, Bojado, and Abdulaev who are hungry and up and coming. Combine that with the veteran talent already there as well as that same variety moving up and there is a perfect chance for Hatton shine or fade. It all hinges on whether he wants to fight the Sharmba Mitchells or the Achille Mitchells of the world.