01.03.06 – By LOVEMORE NDOU: Ricky Hatton and his people should stop playing this TBA game because they are not fooling anybody. They are trying to make it like they can’t find a suitable opponent for Hatton whereas there are legitimate top contenders like myself who are willing to step in and fight him. These people speak of Hatton as the best thing at 140lbs at the moment but wanna mismatch him against the likes of Ben Rabah and Juan Diaz. These kinda fights won’t help make a legend out of him.
They wanna build him into a legend then maybe they should try doing what Mayweather’s camp is doing. Floyd Mayweather deserves his legacy because he fights legitimate contenders and champions to build his legacy. Ricky is never gonna become a legend by fighting micky-mouses like Ben Rabah. He made everybody believe that the reason he left Frank Warren was because Frank was giving him hand picked opponents and he wanted to step up. Now, after beating someone like Kostya Tsyzu, you would expect him to do just that. That is, step up. A Hatton/Rabah or Hatton/Diaz fight doesn’t make sense..
Rabah is not a TV fighter and can’t fight shit. This is one fight that HBO should never buy. If Hatton wants to prove himself in America he needs to fight someone credible, someone who comes to fight like myself. I have been on HBO twice and both fights were all action fights which kept boxing fans who are paying a lot of money for these fights entertained. Anyone that knows his or her boxing will tell you that a Hatton/Ndou fight will be explosive. It will be two super fit athletes with granite chins throwing punches non-stop. Believe me, I will expose Hatton just like I did with Cotto and Mitchell. With all due respect to Hatton, the only great fighter he ever beat was the aging Kostya Tsyzu with weight issues and who had been inactive for nearly two years due to recurring injuries. On his best, Kostya would have knocked him out in two rounds.
Apart from that, other reports are that Hatton’s people are having problems making the Rabah fight due to the M’baye court case as the IBF won’t sanction this fight until they get a clearance from the court. Well, he can fight me in a non-title fight as I’m available. Nobody is stopping him from having a non title fight. The IBF allows their champions to have non title fights at catchweight.
As for fighting Juan Diaz, this fight doesn’t make any sense either. Hatton is talking about moving up to 147lbs. Now, why fight a lightweight to prepare yourself to move up a division? Who is he trying to fool? You don’t prepare to fight godzilas by fighting midgets. There is no way this fight will prepare him for a showdown with Mayweather. Unless, of course, he wants to commit suicide. He is better off fighting a legitimate super lightweight like myself or a proper welterweight like Luis Collazo (WBA Welterweight champ). Damn, I will even fight him at 147. And this should suit him better since he is so fat at the moment. From the photos I have been seeing of him lately, he looks like a mini-Butterbean.
Anyway, the point is Hatton’s people should stop making excuses about not finding a suitable opponent. I’m just a call a way and ready to fight. And for Godsake, the boxing fans, including Hatton’s own fans, are getting sick and tired of this TBA opponent. This has been going on for months and a lot of people including myself are starting to think this is just a game his management team is playing. Well, his people need to realize that this game is not winning him fans but making them lose interest in him.