Don King, on Mike Tyson


"Why would anyone expect him to come out smarter?
He went to prison, not to Princeton."



"To me, boxing is like a ballet, except there's no music
and the dancers hit each other."

Friday, September 7, 2012

Ricky, stay retired.

INTRO: Is it a healthy decision for qa pressure fighter like Hatton to come back after some of the hard fights and terrible losses he has suffered?  How many fighters have come back because they can't stand to be out of the spotlight only to take a beating?


POW!!!


Goodnight.


Ricky Hatton is only 33 but after the way he's lived it up for most of those years they fear that his body is going on 43.


The concern, especially given a warrior instinct even harder to quench than his thirst, is that he will get himself badly hurt.


Hatton, as bright as he is brave, understands the anxiety. He's been out of the ring for three years and in that last appearance in Las Vegas he was knocked out so brutally by Manny Pacquiao that as he fell flat on his back, arms folded across his chest, for a few nasty minutes we thought he might have been killed rather than concussed.


It is hard to delete that image from any consideration of Hatton's immediate future. He does that by constantly reminding himself of how his brief fight with the PacMan was preceded by a training camp so chaotic that it left him drastically unprepared to fight one of the two greatest boxers on the planet.


Yet that in itself is not enough to convince him that he should return to battle. The most problematic question is whether that body – which he has driven through binge-boozing followed by ball-busting weight loss so often – can withstand another bout of punishment.



Working outs and  Weight Loss:


The final test will come shortly, if and when he girds himself for meaningful sparring in addition to strenuous exercise.


Meanwhile, bookings which are described as tentative, have been made for alternate dates at the MEN arena in late November and January.

Whether either is confirmed may depend as much on the television companies as Hatton's state of mind and body.


A Hitman comeback would excite all the networks and he is teasing them to come to terms with his company while not yet committing to fighting again personally.

If he does, the first fight would be against a journeyman – not a rematch with his former title victim Paulie Malignaggi - by way of preparation for a world championship campaign to follow.

His legions of fans will not care who he meets. They would pack the MEN if he fought Donald Duck, never mind a Mickey Mouse opponent.

And they would flock to Las Vegas in their tens of thousands again if he returned there to seek redemption against Pacquiao or Floyd Mayweather, the only two men to have beaten him.

Hatton is in a strong negotiating position because he does not need the money. The rich list values Hatton as worth £27 million.


Should he take the plunge it will not be for the cash but because he truly believes his body can take the strain of elite prize-fighting once again.


If so, will anyone feel bold enough to argue?


Source: Hitman Hatton fighting fit once more... but is ring return a healthy decision?

By Jeff Powell



Read more: http://www.dailymail.co.uk/sport/boxing/article-2194597/Jeff-Powell-Ricky-Hatton-fighting-fit--comeback-healthy-decision.html#ixzz25m45V3U9



Jeff Powell: Ricky Hatton fighting fit.. but is comeback a healthy decision? | Mail Online

Link:  http://www.dailymail.co.uk/sport/boxing/article-2194597/Jeff-Powell-Ricky-Hatton-fighting-fit--comeback-healthy-decision.html



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