It’s been almost two years since Ricky Hatton last battled for boxing’s mythical pound for pound title against then consensus titleholder Floyd Mayweather, Jr. Next to the coming out party that was the Kostya Tszyu fight, it was the biggest fight of ‘The Hitman’s career. Fought at welterweight, seven pounds above the division where Hatton has long been the linear titleholder and is still undefeated, the Mayweather fight was the kind of nightmare no fighter wants to have. “Money” Mayweather simply had too much for Hatton; too much agility, speed, and too high of a boxing I.Q. The fight for pound for pound supremacy ended in one-sided fashion with Hatton eating a brutal hook from a sidestepping Mayweather and bouncing head first off the turnbuckle. He would rise but the fight would be quickly stopped as Mayweather pound for pounded Hatton along the ropes and to the canvas again. It was a crushing defeat for a man who had never tasted it before.
As he had following his previous effort at 147 (a tough, close win over Luis Collazo in 2006 in which Hatton claimed a version of the welterweight title), Hatton returned back to the 140-pound division where he spent his whole career.
“My last fight against Floyd was out of my weight division and my two fights at welterweight never really - didn't look comfortable for me,” says Hatton. “Going up the extra 7 pounds, even winning the world title against Collazo, I didn't - don't think I looked particularly comfortable. But, you know, [140] is my weight division. This is the weight I feel more comfortable at.”
Despite returning to a more comfortable weight, Hatton didn’t exactly return to form. He looked vulnerable and a bit worse for wear in his return to the ring against the not exactly Tysonesque power of Juan Lazcano. Hatton was rocked on several occasions in the fight and many in the industry (as well as in his own camp) began to question whether or not it was time to get out while the getting was good.
The Hitman did some questioning of his own. And after evaluating his situation (44-1 with 30 KOs and titles in two divisions), he decided there was still more to be done in the ring. But change was indeed coming as he fired long time trainer Billy Graham, the man who was with Hatton from the beginning. Graham’s deteriorating health in recent years had become a source of distraction for the easy going Hatton.
“Trainers have got to be fun and it’s a long time since I’ve enjoyed my training camps,” says Hatton, “My former training at Billy Graham Training was becoming hard work due to Billy’s health and his injuries, you know? Training became pretty difficult really because I was worried whether Billy was going to get through the training camps.”
If he was looking for fun and a new direction, Hatton couldn’t have picked more on the money in choosing Floyd Mayweather, Sr. to return him to the Promised Land.
“You know, there were too many fights that were getting so similar tactically and style-wise. I think if you look at the Collazo fight, it was like 100 mile an hour. I was trying to steamroll my opponent. I tried 100 mile an hour to steamroll Floyd. The Castillo fight my tactics would stay much the same, just get stuck in there, although that was one of my best wins. That Lazcano fight, after the Mayweather fight, - I was just trying to steamroll him as well. And I don't think there’s any real thought into the way I was fighting. And it all accumulated with the defeat by Mayweather. That made me think to myself ‘come on, Ricky, you've always been able to box. You've always had a good jab. You've always had good boxing ability. But, you know, you’re not using it any more.’ And that’s why I opted to go with Floyd Mayweather because I thought to myself ‘well, I know I can fight. You know, what’s the areas I need to work on?’ And the areas were my defense, my left jab, my head movement, my footwork, my combinations, my speed. And I think you saw the difference in the Malignaggi fight.”
A Manchester brawler/mauler being trained by the man who first taught Floyd, Jr how to punch and shoulder roll? If the match doesn’t seem made in heaven on paper, watching the two of them interact coupled with Hatton’s next performance against Paulie Malignaggi, it appears that the chemistry between these two is as solid as you’ll find. As is the case in all sports, whatever you think is helping you win, probably is.
In the Malignaggi fight, Mayweather, Sr got Hatton back to basics and re-employed a long missing weapon: the multiple jab. While his head still appeared stationary for too long at times, Hatton appeared to be going about the business of tracking down the moving Malignaggi in a more efficient and effective manner than ever before. Utilizing the jab get inside without eating too much leather and quick, educated feet to cut off the ring, Hatton doled out serious punishment to the feather fisted Malignaggi. Hatton appeared comfortable following the game plan of the self-proclaimed “greatest trainer of all time.” But the transition wasn’t as smooth as it appeared. For one, their first camp together was a short one of seven weeks. Barely enough time to develop a way of communicating much less implement every change needed in Hatton’s game.
“You know, there’s only so much you can do in seven weeks,” says Hatton. “And I think the way I performed after just seven weeks I think was a credit to me and my team and just shows you how much I've got left. To be honest, you need seven weeks sometimes just to get used to a new trainer. To be perfectly honest with you, for the first two or three weeks of that seven weeks, I couldn't understand a word Floyd was f@*#king saying. So you can imagine, you know, we have to sort of like, you know, get used to each other, get used to each other’s personality, each other’s training methods.”
The most important aspect of this retooling process was the idea that Hatton wouldn’t completely abandon what had gotten him to this point but rather tighten up the areas that had slipped over time.
“Everybody’s expecting me now I'm with Floyd Mayweather to get up on me toes, start shuffling and jabbing,” laughs Hatton. “And that’s never been Ricky Hatton. I didn't revert back to the old Ricky Hatton in the Malignaggi fight, so I certainly won't do it this time. I'm just my usual aggressive self, but just a lot more tidied up in certain areas I feel. And that’s what the Mayweather fight taught me more than anything I think. I needed to pull my socks up and stop thinking I could just run all over people.”
So now, following an extensive training camp, (“Come fight night it would have been 12 weeks of training time”), Hatton squares off yet again for the pound for pound title. This time, however the puzzle in front of him isn’t named Mayweather. It comes in the form of a 5’ 6” ½ Filipino phenom named Manny Pacquiao, an aggressive puncher/boxer with all the speed and power that a fighter could ever want. While Hatton respects his attributes and fighting style, but the Man from Manchester feels he has what it takes to negate the “Pacman’s” strengths.
“I do really believe he’s very effective at what he does,” says Hatton. “But I think he fights the same way all the time. He throws the same punches all the time. He throws a right jab, a one-two. He shuffles in and out with his feet, which obviously if you don’t get to - if you don’t get adjusted to the style of his feet obviously it could cause you problems. But I think you get adjusted to this style - I don’t see a versatile fighter in Manny Pacquiao. So I think I will have more game plans in my favor. Especially the way I’m fighting now really. I mean if you’d watched tapes maybe - I don’t know three, four, five fights ago, you could just - I could have been easy to read. But I feel I’m a lot more difficult to read now and I hope to show that.”
After debuting at 106 pounds back in 1995, Manny the “Pacman” has slowly become the biggest star to ever come out of the Philippines. Moving up through the years, Pacquiao defeated legends Marco Antonio Barrera, Erik Morales, and Juan Manuel Marquez, collecting fans and title belts in four divisions along the way. Last December, he capped off a year that saw him beat Marquez in a hotly contested rematch, move up and claim a version of the lightweight crown, then hop a division on his way to a dream match/one-sided beat down at 147 over Oscar De La Hoya.
It was a banner year but in Hatton’s opinion, the De La Hoya fight was a bit of mirage. It was widely reported that De La Hoya botched his move back down to 147, making weight weeks in advance and weakening himself to the point where he was a mere shadow of his former self come fight night.
“I don't want to sound too disrespectful to my promoter, my friend Oscar de la Hoya,” begins Hatton, “but [Pacquiao] could've done the same thing hitting a punch bag that night, no disrespect to Oscar. That’s not the Oscar that we've come to love over the years. So this is a new weight division for him. He may've had one fight at 147, but trust me, this is a new weight division for him. And I feel very, very confident because I've never lost at this weight division. I've always proved too big and strong, then unlike the Mayweather fight, where there was really no real method to the madness and it made things quite easy for Floyd by going in carelessly. I'm not doing that now, I expect to perform a lot better, one, because, you know, I've got a new training camp and I'm working on different things, and two, it is in my weight division.”
One aspect of Pacquiao’s style that pundits feel will trouble Hatton is his southpaw stance.
“Well, a lot of people say I’ve struggled against southpaws,” says Hatton. “I mean, I am only putting that down to the fact that against Collazo, it was a very, very tough fight. But, again, as I keep stressing, that was up at 147. Collazo was a fast southpaw. And he was a big southpaw, hand speed. If you stuck Manny Pacquiao next to Collazo, you've got like David and Goliath. I mean, you know, so if that’s struggling, you know, I would still say more to the weight rather than the southpaw. But I just think that that Pacquiao has underestimated me full stop. They think I struggle with southpaws. If that’s their opinion, you know, don't expect me to share their enthusiasm. But if they think I struggle with southpaws and they think, you know, Manny’s going to knock me out in three rounds and, you know, brilliant, you know, brilliant. Bring it on.”
Looking back over Pacquiao’s resume, Hatton points out that Pacquiao hasn’t taken on a come forward, all-pressure, all-the-time type of fighter like himself. That knowledge is what fuels Hatton now as he powers down training and gets ready to get at Pacquiao this Saturday night.
“I think Marquez is very patient, a safety first fighter,” he explains. “I think Marco Antonio Barrera is a boxer who tried to box on the move. What I’m basically getting at is I don’t think Manny has fought anybody as fiery, as ferocious, as rough and certainly not as big and as strong as Ricky Hatton. There’s one thing that comes to mind is Ricky Hatton is a handful, he’s all over you. He’s an absolute handful. And I’m using a left jab hand, movement, and hand speed as well now. There’s no doubt in my mind who’s going to win this fight. I’ve never been more certain, I’ve never been more confident.”
Whether he boxes a lot, a little, or just enough, Hatton is certain of one thing: this fight is not going the distance.
“I don’t see it being a distance fight,” says Hatton. “One, because Manny doesn’t fight like he claims to go the distance. In fairness Manny goes for the knockout, I go for the knockout. But I think Manny is not the most elusive. You know I think he’s there, and sometimes he’s a southpaw and when he comes - very square on, he puts himself in the pocket so if there’s a hit, it comes square on. He likes to engage in a fight, which obviously anyone who engages in a fight there’s obviously dangers for me and I am aware of that. But if he engages and wants to have a fight with me, I do strongly believe he will come second best.”
With everything on the line and his new techniques and tactics in place, all that is left is winning the fight. For Hatton, this isn’t just about beating a big name. This isn’t just defending his title. This fight is about something you can’t touch or put around your waste. This is for pound for pound supremacy.
“If I perform like I did [against Mayweather, Jr],” confesses Hatton, “I'll get beat again. I mean you'd have to be stupid to say that it’s not the most important fight. Of course it is. It’s for the best pound-for-pound fighter in the world title. Everyone’s goal is to become the world champion the first day you lace a boxing glove on. But beat the pound-for-pound number one? You’re beating the best fighter in all weight divisions. A boxer cannot go any higher than that. So it’s the biggest fight of my career.”
Source: maxboxing.com
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