RICKY "THE HITMAN" HATTON
British boxer, Ricky “The Hitman” Hatton has become the latest big name boxer to admit he’s tempted by a switch to the UFC, despite saying its highly unlikely.
Speaking recently with The Sun newspaper in the UK, Hatton said: “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.”
Hatton went onto compare the sports, admitting boxing could learn a few lessons from the UFC.
“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. They always have music blaring and big screens with footage of the fighters before they come out. “But they are different sports.”
VITOR BELFORT
The fighter most excited by the recent alliance between Affliction Entertainment and Golden Boy Promotions is Vitor Belfort. Belfort made it clear that he wants to take up boxing in the very near future.
“I want to fight boxing - professional,” Belfort said, “I hope Golden Boy can make that happen.”
To this point, Belfort has not signed with Golden Boy or any other boxing promotion. He made it clear that this is the first official declaration of his intentions.
“I just made the first announcement today that I am interested,” Belfort said, “I am just going see who the person is that I need to negotiate with - now is the time with Golden Boy involved”
Recently, a few other top level fighters have expressed interest in crossing over into boxing - notably Andrei Arlovski and Anderson Silva. Arlovski was rumored to to be making his professional boxing debut on the undercard of the September 2008 Golden Boy show.
For the time being, Arlovski has put those thoughts on the backburner. “I am only focused on the fight with Fedor Emelianenko. I am not thinking about that right now,” said Arlovski.
Like Arlovski, Belfort has been known as one of the most feared strikers in the MMA world. Belfort believes he could make the transition easily. “I always wanted to get involved with boxing,” said Belfort, “I am very interested. Why not? It’s very exciting.”
