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The fighting spirit of Ricky Hatton is conspicuous amongst many other championship level fighters in that it drives him to satisfy the paying public’s appetite for a real fight. His understanding is that the fans - as he continues to refer to himself - demand and deserve action. That he approaches his fights with the desire to fulfill those wishes separates him from fighters of similar status that are as yet still content to find a way to win that leaves them safe in their own skin.
Hatton’s eye for the genuine spectacle is realized not by his ability to deliver swift stoppages, but by an honest, grueling work-rate to which opponents first adjust then despair of as he appears in the eleventh and twelfth rounds still with boundless energy, ready to further diminish them in body and spirit.
But despite the success and esteemed reputation his ethics have brought, Hatton knows all too well the necessity of winning at the expense of performing to expectations.
Though Hatton’s twentieth contest seems far away, it was the one in which he learned one of his most valuable lessons. An early attempt at acclimatization to fighting in America found him in Detroit against Gilbert Quiros - a Costa Rican average in both achievement and reputation. [details]
Hatton’s eye for the genuine spectacle is realized not by his ability to deliver swift stoppages, but by an honest, grueling work-rate to which opponents first adjust then despair of as he appears in the eleventh and twelfth rounds still with boundless energy, ready to further diminish them in body and spirit.
But despite the success and esteemed reputation his ethics have brought, Hatton knows all too well the necessity of winning at the expense of performing to expectations.
Though Hatton’s twentieth contest seems far away, it was the one in which he learned one of his most valuable lessons. An early attempt at acclimatization to fighting in America found him in Detroit against Gilbert Quiros - a Costa Rican average in both achievement and reputation. [details]
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