Last Saturday British up-and-comer Ricky Hatton took on Australian titan Kostya Tszyu. Tszyu was considered the class of the Junior Welterweight division (140 lbs). The Junior Welterweight division is considered the deepest in boxing. This division is so good that the only household name, Arturo Gatti, is only grudgingly included in some top five lists. Floyd Mayweather, another known fighter at 140, is often thought to be the Pound Per Pound best in the world, and yet Floyd wasn’t the most feared man in the division: That honor belonged solely to Kostya Tszyu.
Leading up to this fight, the worst thing anyone could say about Tszyu is that he is Human. This is surely a fact, but it wasn’t evidenced in his last two fights. In those fights it appeared as though every punch he threw knocked his opponent down. One punch even knocked an opponent down twice.
(click on Tszyu Vs. Judah fight video and watch the end of the round. Its legendary and hillarious)
The contrast in styles had everyone excited. Tszyu’s takes advantage of his power and accuracy by focusing on counter punching. Hatton takes advantage of his unworldly stamina by establishing a frantic work-rate, throwing punches continuously until opponent wilt.
Boxing fans love Tszyu’s ring generalship, and Hatton’s throwback, Duran-esque body-punching style.
Both men are considered role models of the sport for their humble personalities and tremendous work ethic.
Ricky entered the hometown Manchester England ring in from of 20,000 adoring fans first. Tszyu second, pausing outside the ring to brace himself before jumping over the ropes. Tea-leaf readers might interpret the pause as evidence that he was unsure of himself at the 2 A.M. fight time. (Chosen to maximize Cable Pay – Per-View in the U.S.)
Hatton immediately set the tone of the match by charging in on Tszyu, and clinching. His stated objective was to spend as little time as possible in the dead zone that is arms length away from Tszyu. There was an off chance that Hatton might try to outbox Tszyu, like he did the granite chinned Ben Tackie, but most people expected he would do as he said he would do and try to take the fight inside. What they didn’t expect was the constant grappling. Once inside Ricky wasn’t trying to create opening for his body shots, instead he was content to force Tszyu to waste his energy untangling himself. This was not the fist-flying telephone-booth infighting of Castillo-Corralles a few weeks ago, this was ugly. And yet Hatton was landing some bruising uppercuts.
Only once in the early rounds did Tszyu made any visible adjustments to stave off Hatton. He tried to feign a punch, in order to trigger Hatton's charge, and then hopefully have space to send his thunderous right. No dice, Hatton managed to avoid the right that so many people predicted would floor him by the 5th. Tszyu was breathing out his mouth by the fourth. Both men were throwing rabbit punches, and Tszyu was warned for a low blow.
In the middle rounds Tszyu’s corner instructed him to employ the feigning tactic. Ricky hadn’t changed his tactics at all, despite his corner’s suggestion that he create a little space (“Not Too much though” they cautioned). They would each throw a bomb at the beginning of each round and then Hatton would put Tszyu in a bear hug. Tszyu would detangle himself, and Hatton would throw land a few uppercuts. By the 6th round Tszyu started to Counter better, forestalling each of Hatton’s charges with a few straight rights, and jabs, but by then his strength was depleted such that Hatton was only kept at bay, not hurt. At one point the announcer said, “They just exchanged rights, and Hatton’s was better. I never though I would have said that”. Hatton seemed to forsake style for speed in his approach, content to take a punch coming in, as long as it didn’t hit square and Tszyu wasn’t afforded time to rest. Hatton would have scored a knockdown in the 6th had the ropes not saved an off balance Tszyu. His confidence carried over to the 7th but a skillful Tszyu outscored him with jabs and crosses and at one point dropped him with a borderline low-blow (The knockdown was ruled a slip, for some reason, which it clearly wasn’t). At this point the fight was too close to call points wise, but Tszyu was exhausted, and had seen Hatton walk through many of his best punches. This continued for two more rounds: Hatton relentlessly assaulting a fading, but technically superior Tszyu. In the ninth Tszyu was warned again for a low blow, and Hatton immediately sent a vicious blow into Tszyu’s groin. This earned him his first warning, but no points were deducted. Tszyu only took a small portion of the five minutes he could have taken to recover. By the end of the tenth the outcome was clear. Hatton was getting stronger, sensing his victory, and Tszyu had no response. After the eleventh, Tszyu would not answer the question posed by his trainer “are you ok”, meanwhile Hatton was bouncing around his corner preparing to unleash holy-hell in the 12th. Tszyu’s trainer told his charge, “no more Mate”, ending the fight and Hatton fell to floor in tears, the new Champion.
Afterwards Kostya said to the crowd “I am a proud man," Tszyu said. "But today I lost to the best fighter." Hatton thanks his fans for their support and said, "If I can be half the champion Tszyu is, I'll be doing very well," and everyone was reminded of what great ambassadors of boxing these men are.
When asked about his intentional low-blow Hatton replied, “It isn’t a tickle fight, is it?”
When asked why he stopped the fight, Kostya replied that he was too far behind to win and he was getting hurt, “not hurt-hurt”, he clarified, “But it wasn’t the best feeling of my life”.
