Analysis: Hatton vs. Pacquiao

A Dream match it most certainly was not, but what did we learn from this showcase? Well, firstly Oscar De La Hoya is well past his best - sadly it looks as though old father time had caught up with The Golden Boy which happens to us all and secondly he was obviously weight drained from making the 147 pound mark. This is not taking anything away from Pac-man’s win but saluting the end of an era in that De La Hoya will never be what he once was, and let’s face it he once was a force to be reckoned with.. Let us not forget the battles with Fernando Vargas, Ricardo Mayorga, Floyd Mayweather Jr, Sugar Shane Mosley, Hector Camacho, Whittaker, Quartey and of course J C Chavez.

We also learnt that Pacquiao could fight comfortably at 147 lbs (come fight night he weighed in at closer to 149lbs) and he had lost none of his speed, power, agility, aggressiveness coming up to that weight, bearing in mind that Pac-Man started his career at light flyweight (106lbs) then moving up to super bantam weight 122lbs, where he captured the WBC title and defended it five times before moving up to super featherweight and securing the titles there, and settling at lightweight 135lbs ripping the WBC title from David Diaz and finally joining old boy Oscar in the aforementioned “Dream Match”

Styles make fights and there was only one style that had any effect on December 6th. Now the next fight lined up for Pacquaio is our very own Ricky Hatton, in a way he is very much like our “Golden Boy”. The only other fighter on the planet that can have as many as 55,000 fans turn out if he is fighting at home and even 30,000 was recorded when he fought Floyd Mayweather Jr in Vegas. Commanding big amounts of fans usually means commanding big amounts of money, which means a lot of fights happen, that really shouldn’t, cough “the dream match” cough.

Either way with Pacquaio floating around at anywhere between 135lbs-147lbs and being rated pound for pound king by the Ring magazine and many boxing fans, and Hatton recently overcoming his last obstacle in a very convincing way, TKO 11th over Paulie Malignaggi, it looks like these two stars of the boxing world will meet sometime in May. As I previously said these two have styles that I think should make an interesting fight, or at least a more engaging one then De La Hoya vs Pacquaio. The conversations or debates that I have had with my fellow pugilistic lovers, in the pub and online, have been pretty good with both boxers having good credentials to be able to say he will win because…

The fact that it has become such a fierce debate, and continues to be debated, gives these kind of fights that little edge to where everyone has an opinion, it’s no foregone conclusion and could be a fantastic brawl. However, I was also surprised to hear from so many people that they considered it a very even fight, and that the fight will be a 50/50 one.

As I said earlier though styles make fights and there are two very aggressive styles on the table, firstly I will say that Hatton at Jr WW is or was an immovable object, when you look at his performances against good hard opponents like when he won the British Light Welter weight title in a bloody war with now European lightweight champion Jon Thaxton and retaining the WBU title against Eamonn Magee. From that point people started noticing this young scrapper and everyone remembers that very special night June 4th 2005 in Manchester when he fought Kosta Tszyu, who for those who don’t know, was a prime-evil fighting force, fighting some quality operators, and knocking everyone out early, (Sharmba Mitchell KO 7th , Zab Judah KO 2nd and future Hatton victim and tricky opponent Ben Tackie W12) unifying the division.

After a TKO 11th where Tszyu did not come out for last round, it secured the suspicions we all had that we had a very special fighter in “The Hitman”; after that victory he took on three tricky opponents in Maussa, Collazo and Urango. Nevertheless, it is the fight against Collazo that I am looking at, in which Ricky struggled to get the decision, yes I know what you are thinking, it was at 147lbs, a division Ricky was not comfortable at, and his first outing into the Welterweights but there was something else about Collazo that Ricky struggled with…Collazo was a southpaw, so is Pacquaio.

Collazo was a tricky, slick southpaw, Pacquaio is not tricky…he’s just so damn fast, and if we look at Ricky’s only defeat ( again at 147lbs ) to Floyd Mayweather Jr, it was the speed that got to him, he couldn’t see half the shots coming as they were so precise, accurate and fast, that’s not because Ricky was bad on the night, speak to any of “Pretty Boys “ victims and they suffered the same fate. We know that Pacquaio has lost none of his speed at 147lbs and he started his career at a lot less it is reasonable to assume that he will be the complete package come fight night. People say to me “Pacquaio will not have been hit by anyone as hard as Ricky’s going to hit him” which is a fair point as Pacquaio’s highest fighting weight was against De La Hoya and we have already covered that farce of a fight, and just below the 140lbs mark against ‘ Dangerous’ David Diaz at 135 lbs, again already covered, except the fact that Diaz was a battle-hardened, Mexican Lightweight with a granite chin and a mammoth heart. The man had never been stopped, knocked down or out and Pacquaio had him fall face first to the canvas, failed to make the ten count, get up and say “did anyone get the number of that truck?”

Its not the sheer power of Pacquaio, it’s the accumulation of punches that did it, and although Ricky does have a very good chin, and is clever enough to hold when he’s in trouble, he was wobbled against Juan Lazcano who is a very run of the mill kind of boxer and had it not been the first fight after his loss, I honestly believe Hatton would of steamed through Lazcano, he got the decision, but twice looked in trouble. His most recent performance left me more impressed as ‘The Magic Man ‘Paulie Malignaggi was made to look like he really shouldn’t be sharing a ring with Hatton. And that was a case of Malignaggi being hit with a hard left hook and buckling, the realisation setting in that he couldn’t hurt Hatton or indeed catch him as often as he liked, leading to him grabbing Hatton for most of the fight before his trainer Buddy McGirt threw in the towel in the 11th. The fact that he couldn’t hit Hatton as much as he would of liked is down to Hattons new trainer Floyd Mayweather Sr, who like his son and brother is a defensive master.

I think that this will help but Pacquiao’s trainer is Freddie Roach and he has also done wonders with Pacquiao in the respect of making an explosive aggressive carefree fighter into a somewhat more reserved and technical, before Roach Pacquiao would wander into tangles with his hands down by his sides, or he would just go ballistic and get caught coming in, Roach has captured all of that and made him more of a boxer, and a very good one.

A lot of the internet hype is that they expect Hatton’s bread and butter punch, the left hook to the body, to be the main offender in this fight. Don’t get me wrong Hatton is one of the most effective body punchers in the game, I can watch him put down Jose Luis Castillo all day long and it still makes me grimace at how well delivered that punch was, Hatton claiming he broke some of Castillos ribs…and I could well believe it. Hatton only gets to land that punch when he is inside, which is a lot in some fights, I do not think he will be getting inside as much as he would like against Pacquiao, I can see Hatton muscling his way in and getting caught with quick left and right hooks, and Pacquiao’s hooks are “blink and miss it “quick. He lacerated Diaz, De La Hoya and Juan Manuel Marquez with these shots throughout 12 rounds…if it lasted that long. Hattons movement was a lot better in the last fight but Pacquiao’s footwork is not exactly bad itself and I know for a fact that Roach will be telling his fighter to not stand and trade or let him get inside, likewise Mayweather Sr will be telling Hatton to close Pacquiao down and pressure him.

Earlier I divulged a little bit into Hatton’s previous opponents and the quality that was there… Pacquiao has had good opposition as well, with “the Mexicutioner” being one of his recently acquired nicknames; because of the heritage of the fighters he has battled with i.e. Marco Antonio Barrera, Oscar Larios, Jorge Solis, Erik Morales, Juan Manuel Marquez, David Diaz, all Mexican.

The fights he had with Barrera, Morales and Marquez were equally as exciting as Hatton Vs Tszyu, his first with Barrera is similar to the upcoming one with Hatton as Pacquiao came up a division to meet Barrera in his first fight ever in the featherweight division, all the same questions that are being asked of him now were being asked back then (Nov 15th 2003) and he did not disappoint with a KO over the “ Baby Faced Assassin “ in the 11th round. No easy feat.

He then followed it up with a Draw with Juan Manuel “Dinamita “Marquez who is a very classy operator, excellent counterpuncher and had it not been for the fact that Pacquiao dropped JMM 3 times in the opening round it would have been a Marquez win and I think that’s the only boxer who has really troubled Pacquiao as the rest of the fight was very very close, and the second was even closer. Next came Erik “El Terrible” Morales, who some hold as one of Mexico’s greatest fighters, along with Barrera. Morales won a very close decision, and agreed to a rematch the following year, in which Pacquiao stopped Morales in 10 rounds and in their third fight (a non-championship bout) Pac-man stopped Morales in 3!

Pacquiao is very good at adapting to a style enabling him to fight his fight more effectively, a sign of all great champions, the only adjustment I think I have ever seen Ricky make is when he gets hurt he reverts back to his instincts, which isn’t the worst thing to happen, as he is a natural born fighter, but generally it is easy for someone who has adapted to his style to figure him out and subsequently take him out i.e. Floyd Mayweather.

Pacquiao then fought Barrera again winning a unanimous decision and then a second exciting instalment with Marquez in which he was gifted the split decision.

Online I see that most Brits are going down the “Hatton will be too strong route” and I remember saying the same thing Dec 6th 2007 when he faced Mayweather…if I would have been thinking with my head and not letting my adoration for the Hitman cloud my vision, it would have been clear as day that Ricky could not win that fight simply because of who he was fighting.

Having looked this morning as I write this the bookies in America have come out with their odds and although I am not too familiar with the way Americans bet, I do know that they have got Manny as favourite, but only just. Moreover, those odds will probably change as we get closer to the fight.

The one thing that I remain fearful of is how much Ricky cuts. Luckily it has never been that bad that a fight has had to be stopped because of a cut but as I mentioned earlier, Pacquiao’s speed is an issue there and he has cut nearly all of his opponents in his last 5-6 fights, simply because of the speed he wings those hooks in and his movement to get those hooks in. Unfortunatley I think that could be a huge factor in this fight and I see it going down that route with Hatton being to badly cut to continue or not being able to see properly and getting floored, I think it will happen around the 8th-9th round.

Either way I remain very excited about this fight and look forward to the continuing debates that ensue.

Source: eastsideboxing.com