Hatton/Castillo Time, Place Made Official
By Uncategorized February 19th, 2007Hatton/Castillo battle this summer at UNLV’s Thomas and Mack
The date and place are official: Ricky Hatton will take on Jose Luis Castillo in Las Vegas on June 23, at the Thomas and Mack Center.
The fight will be one of the top 20 most anticipated fights of the year, and figures to be a crowd-pleaser, as both men have much to answer for. The 33-year-old Castillo (55-7-1) needs an impressive win to erase the taint of WeightGate, and the 42-0 Hatton needs to show people he can get in proper shape, and deliver a bang-up performance that puts him on P4P lists.
“When I beat Kostya Tszyu I beat one of the best pound-for-pound fighters in the world and Jose undoubtedly falls into that category as well,” said the 28-year-old Hatton to the Guardian Unlimited. “You become a great fighter by fighting great fighters and Jose is one of them. I am so excited about this fight and I am living my dreams by topping the bill in Las Vegas again. This fight does not need anyone to sell it because everybody knows how good it is going to be. I am not going to take a backward step and neither will Jose.”
Hatton, by all accounts, is aware that he truly needs to step up his preparation and bring his ‘A’ game.
“A lot has been said about our last performances,” added Hatton, “but when you are involved in so many big fights you raise your game for a challenge—and this is a challenge to say the least.”
February 19th, 2007 at 4:38 pm
I slightly favour Castillo in this fight, simply because he’s more experienced and the harder puncher. But it’ll be close.
February 19th, 2007 at 5:17 pm
Castillo over Hatton by 6th round TKO. Finally a fighter that will show Hatton just how good he’s not. After this fight Hatton will hang’em up and retire. From the looks of things Hatton should of quit after the Kostya Tszyu fight. All his outings after that fight have been medicore at best.
February 20th, 2007 at 7:45 am
Castillo didn’t exactly look like a KO threat in his last outing. He will not KO Hatton. It will be a good fight and will probably go the distance. It’s a hard one to pick because it depends on which Castillo shows up. My gut feeling however tells be that Castillo’s best fight is behind him and that he’s lost some of his pop. Hatton by UD.
February 20th, 2007 at 9:31 am
Hatton will hold and grab until Castillo stamina catches up with him and knock him out. Hatton is a ducker and it will be proven. PBF, Witter, Harris, Mitchell,Ndou He ran away from those at 140. He a Sideshow clown a tv puppet.
February 21st, 2007 at 6:15 pm
Hatton is very fast, very smart and very tough. I suspect he let himself get to complacent, too fat and had to work too hard to get rid of the pounds. The tough fights he has had have reinstilled his will to peform as a crowd pleaser. He will hit, hold and hit some more. Pound for pound there is no one tougher right now. I go with Hatton in 9.
February 22nd, 2007 at 8:09 pm
In his last fight Castillo looked like he was walking in quick sand. Castillo fights like he is an old man now. Hatton wasn’t very impressive in his last fight
but he still has the youth advantage over Castillo. Two Years ago it’s a pick’em fight. Today, Hatton has too much of an advantage plus his Boxing Skills are highly underrated. At one time Castillo could do both Box when he needed to and punch while turning on the pressure. The last time that happened was the Corrales fight. I think the wars with Corrales pretty much spent Castillo as an elite fighter. Hatton is still an elite fighter and Castillo isn’t. That’s the difference. Hatton wins.
February 23rd, 2007 at 1:18 am
I think Wayne is right about Castillo; too many very rough fights that make him older than his years. I see that extra fire in Hatton and an amazing pride in who he is and where he is from. He gets hot too much these days, perhaps, but the smarts and the will are there.
February 28th, 2007 at 1:49 pm
Ricky will get himself into fantastic shape for this one, and it will be all over by round 8 or 9, constant pressure and body shots will wear Castillo down and a KO body shot will end it………Another MANCHESTER invasion once again in vegas…… CITY for the cup 07..
March 15th, 2007 at 7:51 pm
JLC will crush Hatton, just as he did with Lazcano, Diaz and Corrales II (or even their first meeting as well).
March 15th, 2007 at 7:54 pm
Plus, Hatton style is tailor made for Castillo.
April 14th, 2007 at 6:35 am
Hatton By KO, Castillo WAS a great, but I don’t think he can take the constant forward pressure of Hatton, not at this stage of his career, not to mention Hatton’s rib cracking - vision blurring power at this weight. Should be a damn good fight to watch……. It should only be outclassed by the PBF Vs DLH fight this year…….So far anyway !
April 30th, 2007 at 2:25 pm
Some of you guys are clearing speaking from your heart regarding a Hatton victory. Other than Zyu Hatton has only fought guys past their prime. Castillo will score a clean KO of Hatton with one of his trademark left hooks (easy to predict). In a war of body puching look for Castillo to win; Hatton has never had to taste what he dishes out and Castillo loves the hook to the body (ask Corralles). In a war of inside fighting Hatton’s defense is suspect and will absorb to many puches.
So, finally we will see Hatton fight an opponent that won’t quit (Zyu you wimp) or is simply looking for one last payday before retiring.
June 14th, 2007 at 3:22 am
Hatton will take this via UD but i wouldn’t be surprised if he is dropped and cut somewhere around the 4th round. I think it will resemble Hatton/Phillips (albeit of a higher quality) where Hatton’s relentless mauling style will bewilder Castillo and his INCREASINGLY AGED body. I doubt Castillo has the snap to straight KO Hatton now.
Darryl, how can you label Tszyu a wimp? Wasn’t he diagnosed with having shadows on the brain or something after he ‘quit’?
You can’t be referring to Tszyu with the ‘One last payday’ comment surely? Tszyu’s greatest career performance was his fight against Mitchell (top three at 140 at the time) - his next fight was Hatton.
October 15th, 2007 at 10:47 pm
Just shows how full of sh*t you yanks are. Hatton is an englishman who have more pride, history and will to win than you half-arsed mongrels will ever have. Watch out for Mayweather also - he’ll make his money but nothing else. Shove your stars n’ stripes up your asses.