Ricky Hatton and his Move to MMA

The British boxing star recently spoke about moving over to MMA, but apparently he’s not 100% sold on MMA over boxing. He was recently seen at UFC 91with lightweight champ BJ Penn and he’s got enough power to hurt some other little fighters, but is he ready to move over to MMA?  This is what Hatton told The Sun about his thoughts.

“You can never say no — MMA is a little bit brutal, and I’d say I’m a brutal fighter. ”

“But boxing is very much my sport and I’d like to think I have a few more years in that yet.” 

Could a boxer like Hatton survive in a sport like MMA? It’s not really fair to compare Hatton to the likes to other pro-athletes who have made the move to MMA as ‘The Hitman’ has proved time and time again that he’s no slouch when it comes to standing – his 45-1 record backs him up. But, like many stand-and-bang fighters, the ground game is always under-rated and becomes a quick and painful way to lose in this sport.

And even with the back and forth bickering between the boxing and MMA industries, Hatton had many respectful things to say about the sport of mixed martial arts.

“The guys in MMA now aren’t the big bully types that wrestle in the corners like when they started out.”

“These are trained athletes who get well paid.”

“And boxing can certainly learn from the UFC in terms of how to put a show on.”

Too bad the rest of the sport of boxing, mostly commentators and promoters, seem to be less accepting of MMA.