Feb 12
4
Ricky Hatton, Master of the Body Knockout
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Following Manny Pacquiao’s annihilation of Ricky “The Hitman” Hatton, it was easy to dismiss Ricky as an unworthy opponent, when nothing could be further from the truth. In the above video, you can see Hatton knocking opponents out with body shots, something I don’t remember seeing anyone else do. Bob Arum, the legendary boxing promoter, said after the [Hatton-Castillo] fight, “In 42 years of boxing, I’ve seen that punch [left to the liver] land maybe 5 times”.
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Note How Hatton Angles to Castillo's Outside
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Martial artists often debate how applicable boxing is to the street. One of my concerns is that punches to the head are 
valid in boxing, because your hands are wrapped, taped, and encased in padding, but on the street a bare knuckle on somebody’s skull can result in a broken hand. However, with a punch to the body, there is less danger of injuring your own hand, and as Hatton ably shows, a body punch can knock someone out, especially a person without the aerobic and abdominal conditioning of a pro boxer.
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Another of my concerns is that lowering the hands creates openings at the head. In my thinking about what is effective, I have focused on using the hands for highline attacks, while using the knees to take the place of the hook to the body, which allows me to maintain cover at my head. Hatton has forced me to reconsider this. In Hatton’s method, when your hands are down throwing a hook or uppercut low, you are outside the opponent, in a safer position.
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Rick Hatton has a reputation as a brawler who always charges forward and never retreats, but I was surprised to see there is great sophistication to his methods. I shouldn’t have been surprised, because nobody racks up a record like Hatton’s on accident.
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1. A key of Hatton’s technique is his angling. Hatton continually angles off to the side, often landing a left hook to the liver or floating ribs from a spot that is nearly behind his opponent.
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2. Hatton moves to the side to throw a punch right down the opponent’s centerline. Suppose we have two fighters hunched together in close, facing each other. If I throw an undercut to the pit of my opponent’s stomach, that punch tends to come in at an oblique angle, an angle that enables my opponent to deflect it or block it with his tucked-in elbows. But if I step to the side, I can throw that uppercut in a straighter line, in between his elbows and right into the pit of his gut.
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3. Hatton credits Roberto Duran for the in-close uppercut. Ricky points out that even with one arm tied up, and you’re forehead to forehead, you can still blast an opponent with an uppercut, as can be seen in the video below.
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4. The Hitman makes excellent use of the offbeat. Just as the opponent is trying to regroup, or senses a lull or a break, Hatton attacks when his guard is down. He mentions a sneaky technique of launching a barrage of shots to the body. The opponent responds by tensing his abdomen. When Ricky “breaks,” the opponent will now breathe in deeply to catch his breath. Right as the opponent sucks in, Hatton launches a devastating hook to the stomach, flooring him.
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5. Check out the huge abdominal pad on Hatton’s trainer, which lets Ricky practice full power body shots on a moving opponent. This more realistic training is key to developing Hatton’s crushing power and accuracy.
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