Hatton goes full speed

As Manny Pacquiao tries his best to remain focused owing to the television mess that he is embroiled in, all is quiet and well over at Ricky Hatton’s UK training camp in Manchester.

Hatton has been relentless during his daily workout under the watchful eyes of Floyd Mayweather Sr. and is poised to be in tip-top shape in time for his May 2 ring date with the Filipino
pound-for-pound king, according to a Hatton insider.

“I visited Ricky and Matthew Hatton at their training base in The Village Hotel, Ashton. With several weeks to go before the big fight I was expecting to see an out of shape Ricky going through the early routines while he shifts the weight he has acquired during the past few months,” reported Craig Gibson in the Hatton website a few days ago.

Gibson said Hatton, although still sporting excess baggage, looks to be right on target as far as shedding weight is concerned.

“Instead I found a Hitman who is lighter than he has been for many a fight with so many weeks to go and one that is keen to prove wrong those who doubt his chances in this fight.”

“Ricky is currently around the 158lb mark and looks to be as fit as a fiddle already,” noted Gibson.
Instead of taking a brief rest in the three-minute workout with the mitts, Hatton would go non-stop for as long as 15 minutes without letup and does the same thing when he is hitting the heavy bag for 20 minutes.

Lending Mayweather a hand during training is Lee Beard, who believes that Hatton would knock Pacquiao out in six rounds.

Pacquiao, meanwhile, continues to train under Freddie Roach at the Wild Card in Hollywood, California, despite the tug-of-war involving ABS-CBN and Solar Sports over the broadcast rights of his fight with Hatton.

Despite the controversy, the men around Pacquiao said the Gensan fighter hardly skips a beat. The famed fighter has actually racked up a total of eight rounds of sparring and is scheduled to bang bodies once again on Saturday (Sunday in Manila).

Mike Koncz, one of Pacquiao’s advisers, said there’d be plenty of sparmates who will be reporting to the Wild Card in the coming days and weeks.

“Manny’s focused when he’s training,” said Koncz.

Source: mb.com.ph