Floyd Mayweather Sr says he had to go right back to basics after feeling the power of Ricky Hatton in training.
He's currently preparing Hatton for the biggest test of his career - a showdown with reigning P4P king Manny Pacquiao in Las Vegas on May 2.
It will be the second time the pair have worked together, the first being an 11th-round stoppage of Paulie Malignaggi last November.
Mayweather Sr says he had an eye-opener when he first took the Hitman under his wing - quite literally.
He told Ring magazine: "When I started working with Hatton, to show you how bad it was, he hit me in the face a couple of times while I was holding the pads.
"How could you hit me in the face when I'm holding the pads up in your face? He was that non-focused on how you were supposed to throw punches. He was scaring the crap out of me every time. I had to look out for my face or the man was going to hit me in the mouth."
In the opposite corner on May 2 will be Mayweather Sr's arch rival Freddie Roach, giving the fight a fascinating sub-plot.
And he's fired another shot at Floyd Sr, saying his flashy mitts routine may look good, but it doesn't help the fighter much once he's inside the ropes.
He said: "When I work the mitts with my fighters, I only do things that will happen in the ring. What he does doesn't happen in the ring. It's more of a game to me."
"I think the way he works the mitts is a good conditioning tool, but that's as far as I would go. I take each fight separately and I take each fighter separately. I think Floyd Sr trains every fighter pretty much the same."
Pacquiao is coming off a career-best performance, a shocking stoppage of 'Golden Boy' Oscar De La Hoya.
Roach had confidently predicted the outcome before that fight, but Floyd Sr says it won't happen again.
"Freddie Roach was talking that stuff about: 'Oh, we beat Oscar, and I knew we were going to beat Oscar, because I saw something," he said.
"Well, he's walking around blind if he thinks he sees something this time."
Source: sportinglife.com
No comments:
Post a Comment