Boxing's great debate of 2009 began yesterday at the Imperial War Museum, London, where Ricky Hatton and Manny Pacquiao met face to face in front of the national media with the Filipino's celebrated trainer firing the opening shots.
"Hatton will be knocked out in the ninth round," said Freddie Roach, with conviction.
Two tribes go to war when East meets West through the Mancunian and Filipino protagonists at the MGM Grand, in Las Vegas, on May 2.
It is already being hyped as the fight of the year. It is certainly one for the fans, if not for the purists.
Both men have brawled their way to the top, though of late Pacquiao has curbed his style to a more rounded attack, and is now considered the best boxer, pound for pound, on the planet.
The contest within a contest pitches the two leading trainers in the world - Roach, the master strategist, and Floyd Mayweather, the most savvy defensive coach in the business - in opposing camps preparing, with the exception of a handful of Hispanic fighters, the two most popular boxers in the world today.
For the first time in his 12-year career, Hatton faces a pugilist more popular than himself. Pacquiao, 30, has the official title of 'national treasure' in the Philippines.
The Republic's ambassador to the UK, Edgardo Espiritu, attended yesterday's news conference, while requests for ringside seats have already come from Philippines president Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo.
Pacquiao, an iconic figure in his country and widely acknowledged as the most popular person in his homeland of 90 million people, has aspirations to run for election when he retires from the ring.
Veteran promoter Bob Arum said yesterday: "It would be no surprise if he became president. Manny Pacquiao reminds me of the popularity I witnessed when I promoted [Muhammad] Ali.
"He's an exceptional human being. He has hauled himself out of poverty to be the hero of a nation."
The first punch was thrown by Pacquiao's trainer, Roach, yesterday, who predicted that Hatton's aggressive style would send him crashing to a knockout defeat at the lightning hands of the Filipino, who will be fighting for a world title at a fifth weight.
Over the last decade, Pacquiao has climbed from flyweight to welterweight, all as a world champion.
Roach has seen videos of Hatton's entire career (45-1, the solitary loss to Floyd Mayweather Jnr 15 months ago) and says that a game plan is already in place.
"We will change Manny's style a little for this fight, and I already have a plan of how Manny will stop Ricky. It will be in about nine rounds," he said.
He and Pacquiao begin work on his secretive plans tomorrow when they land back in Los Angeles.
Roach has transformed Pacquiao in the last two years from a ferocious non-stop brawler, into a ferocious non-stop boxer, with jack-in-the-box lateral movement, now capable of fighting going backwards or forwards.
Roach added: "Ricky is very resilient but his come-forward nature will walk him into some shots, which will be his downfall. He's tailor-made for us.
"Mayweather Sr is trying to improve that aspect of Ricky's boxing, but I don't think you can change him at this stage in his career. They'll have a game plan coming into the fight, but after the first round he'll go back to his natural style, which is also, incidentally, his best chance of winning."
Mayweather countered with a prediction of his own in a rhyming poetic rap. He called victory for Hatton. Expect the skirmish to be echoed time and again with thousands of opinions before the two proud fighters face off in eight weeks' time.
Source: telegraph.co.uk
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