Ricky Hatton Determined to Win By Knockout

November 21, 2008 - A.J Ryder Everybody from Floyd Mayweather Sr to heavyweight star David Haye have weighed in with their opinion on Ricky Hatton's future should he come out unsuccessful against Paul Malignaggi. Hatton is unphased by this and it seems to have galvanized him as he declared in an interview yesterday that he is "determined to win by knockout".

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The Future

The Las Vegas fight is the subject of an intense amount of rumour and speculation, especially over Hatton's future plans. In addition to rumours of a possible retirement, Hatton is also making noise that he would like to face the winner of the Oscar De La Hoya Manny Pacquiano fight in what could be a career-defining bout. There is definitely a Robert Frost-like two trails diverging in a wood kind of mentality about Hatton's post-fight future.

With Hatton confident of a knockout and Floyd Mayweather Sr. claiming to have taught Hatton a few new moves for this fight, primarily keeping his head down, I really have a feeling that Hatton has more momentum than many people are giving him credit for. Hatton isn't stupid and he knows how much is riding on this. Funny how a fighter can go undefeated for years, but a loss or two towards the end of his career can define his legacy.

New Tactics

With Hatton able to deploy something new in this fight, I think he may ne able to tactically outfox Malignaggi, especially if Hatton's all-action style throws Malignaggi off in the early rounds. A knockdown between rounds 2 and 5 could set the tone for the middle rounds, and I think Hatton will start looking for the KO in the 7th.

I am backing Ricky Hatton to knockout Paul Malignaggi in the eighth round.