Kostya Tszyu vs Ricky Hatton

Date
Sat 4th June 2005 (UTC)
Sat 4th June 2005 (Local)

Timestamp
2005-06-04T00:00:00

Time

00:00:00 UTC

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League
Boxing

Season
2005

Round
0

Status
Match Finished

Location
AO Arena

Video Highlights

Description

Kostya Tszyu vs. Ricky Hatton, was a professional boxing match contested on 4 June 2005 for the IBF and The Ring junior welterweight championship. The 22,000 who attended the bout at the Manchester Arena witnessed one of the biggest upsets in British Boxing History.

Build-up
Kostya Tszyu was an established force amongst the top pound-for-pound fighters in the world and had been the first man to unify the light welterweight division in 30 years. At 35 years old he had been the champion for more than a decade and was considered a national hero in Australia. His only other defeat was in 1997 to Vince Phillips and was named the Ring Magazine upset of the year.

Ricky Hatton at the time, held the minor WBU light welterweight belt, having knocked out Tony Pep and was coming into the fight off stoppage wins against Michael Stewart and Ray Oliveira. He was the underdog for the fight known mostly in Britain as a young crowd favourite.

The fight was staged at 11pm local time to accommodate the American TV company Showtime and that it would on prime time in America. The referee was Dave Parris.

Reports

Result List

01				Ricky Hatton	WIN
01				Kostya Tszyu	LOSS

Result Description
Tszyu was a notoriously slow starter and Hatton won the first two rounds in an aggressive start to the fight, however the champion qualities of Tszyu shone through in rounds 3–5 as he settled into a rhythm and was able to time his counter punches. The sportsmanship of both competitors was questionable at times throughout the middle phases of the fight; Tszyu knocking Hatton to the canvas in the closing stages of the seventh with what was found to be an illegal low blow, and Hatton responding with a deliberate low blow after Tszyu was warned again in the ninth. Nevertherless, Hatton's aggression and pace had begun to slow the aging champion, and going into the twelfth he had a slight lead on all three judges scorecards (105-104, 106-103 and 107-102). After a back and forth battle in which both fighters took great punishment, Tszyu failed to emerge from his corner for the final round as his trainer Johnny Lewis threw in the towel.

Despite parts of the fight being somewhat marred by illegal tactics from both sides, each fighter praised the other in post fight speeches; Hatton stating that he would be honoured to ever be a champion of the same ilk as Tszyu, and Tszyu humbly declaring that he was beaten by the better fighter. This performance is generally regarded as the peak in Hatton's career; due to the stamina and heart he displayed in the fight.

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