RICKY HATTON, the two-weight world champion who’s challenged both Manny Pacquiao and Floyd Mayweather, is not enthused about Conor McGregor’s chances of turning over Mayweather. In fact he’s not even sure if he’ll tune in to see the fight.
“I won’t be going to watch it,” Hatton told Boxing News. He can’t see past a straightforward Floyd Mayweather victory. He doesn’t even believe Mayweather’s advancing years will be a particular advantage to McGregor.
“When you look at what Mayweather’s done, everyone says about him being 40 years of age. He’s a young 40 years of age because he’s a master of defence, there’s no mileage on the clock. It’s not as if he’d take one to get one and if anyone of 40 years of age can still have it, I think it’s Floyd. He’s dedicated, he looks after his body. He’s the best defensively,” Hatton said.
He continued, “When you look at how I struggled and Canelo never won a round, barely laid a glove on him and [Oscar] De La Hoya, one of the most technical boxers probably we’ve seen in my lifetime couldn’t do that with him, I can’t see how Conor McGregor can. I hope he wins and I hope he knocks him out, I’m a big McGregor fan. And I don’t blame him for taking the fight. If you offered me the fight [for that money] I’d probably take the fight. At the end of the day somebody somewhere has got to turn around [and say] how can somebody who has not had one pro fight to his name fight the best of all time?”
While he implied it’s a mismatch, he doesn’t believe it’ll be a dangerous one. “I don’t think it’s dangerous because Floyd doesn’t take a chance,” Hatton explained.
Ricky of course isn’t considering fighting himself. He is focused on his work as a trainer. He has already coached a world champion but he hopes in Nathan Gorman, who has recently signed with promoter Frank Warren, to be working with a future heavyweight champion of the world. That certainly is Hatton’s goal.
“Absolutely, it goes without saying [to train a heavyweight world champion]. Give him time, he’s got to tick all the boxes, he’s got to prove his heart, his chin, his desire, his stamina. After just nine professional fights there’s still a lot of boxes to tick,” Ricky said.
