By: Jon Campbell
Ricky Hatton’s Comeback Fight: Has He Still Got It?
The time has come; on November 24th in The Manchester Arena, Ricky ‘The Hitman’ Hatton (45-2) will finally return to the ring to take on the awkward Ukranian Vyaschlav Senchenko (32-1).
As a Manchester native myself it brings me great pleasure and excitement to preview this fight to the world. Hopefully we will see Hatton bring back the magic we so often seen him produce before he retired 3 years ago.
Hatton, alongside Calzaghe, personified a great decade of British boxing that put the nation back on the boxing map. Both continuously enjoyed success at world level and even travelled across the pond to win against top fighters.
Hatton was undefeated for the vast majority of his career, his only two losses not to be scoffed at, as they came to fighters who were ranked the pound-for-pound #1 at the time.
After enjoying a prosperous, undefeated career, he took a big step up in class and rose to worldwide prominence in his mid-20’s. This came by winning the IBF and ‘The Ring’ Light-Welterweight title against recently crowned Hall-Of-Famer Kostya Tsyzu.
This was a tremendously memorable fight in British boxing history due to the fact that Hatton was a big underdog and left the tough warrior Tszyu sat on his stool at the start of the twelfth round.
Following his career-defining win against Tsyzu, Hatton took on and beat a number of top fighters; this included a win against the tricky southpaw Luis Collazo, along with names such as Malignaggi, Jose Luis Castillo and Juan Urango.
After losing the super-fight to #1 ranked fighter in the world Floyd Mayweather Jr, he had two more successful fights against Juan Lazcano and Paulie Maliganggi before his career ended abruptly with a 2nd round KO loss to Manny Pacquiao.
He comes back to take on Senchenko, who in his last fight lost his WBA Welterweight championship of the world to none other than Hatton’s last victim, Paulie Malignaggi.
Senchenko was undefeated up until this point, and although not really facing anybody of great notability he won a world title and defended it several times. After a successful amateur career Senchenko spent ten years of his career undefeated, winning numerous minor titles along the way to his world title. His first real step up in class was his first loss however, being outworked and outboxed by the slick, elusive Malignaggi.
This fight is an interesting one as it shows a great contrast in styles, with Hatton set to bring the bullish aggressiveness he is known for. He constantly attempts to get inside the reach of his opponent and let rip with his trademark body shots. Senchenko on the other hand uses his height and great hands to keep the fight at a distance and pick his man apart.
Hatton will have watched the Malignaggi fight closely to see if he can exploit particular weaknesses in the Ukrainian’s game. However, he will aim to exploit them through his own means as his style of fighting is possibly a direct opposite of Malignaggi’s.
What he will aim to do is start fast and take the fight to his opponent, hopefully wearing him down for a stoppage later on in the bout. He will need to quickly figure out a way to take away Senchenko’s solid and accurate jab which he has used so effectively throughout his career.
If he can do this and continuously get close to Senchenko I see no problem in predicting a Hatton win in the mid-to-late rounds. The key reason for this is although in theory Senchenko would have a good style to nullify Hatton’s inside fighting game, I do not consider him strong enough to continuously do it for 12 rounds. Moreover, Hatton is much more experienced at the top level and knows how to apply pressure in order to wear his man down.
What many have speculated is that due to Hatton’s highly documented lifestyle of Guinness and pies when he is out of training, his career will not have the sustainability many other fighters enjoy. Although I see this point as relevant I do not think it will affect Ricky during this fight at the age of 34.
I believe behind the jovial bravado Hatton is one of the wisest fighters we have produced. He would not make this comeback without being certain he would have a good chance to gain at least another world title before he ends for good.
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