On Saturday night I walked into a crowd of free loaders (NO Dave Smith wasn’t there!) at the Casa De Castro eating and drinking and waiting for the Manny Pacquaio- Ricky Hatton fight and announced, “Hatton will be lucky to see Round 3.” Among cries of put up or shut up, I sat down and watched one of the great pound for pound fighters of the last decade, Pacquaio, dispose one of the great pint for pint drinkers, Hatton, in less than 6 minutes, ending the affair with a devastating less cross that resulted in what boxing aficionados refer as being TKFO’d. You know, knocked the f**k out? It described the ending perfectly. And pissed off is the way you can describe all the people paying off the host for his incredibly intelligent prediction…
As Dave wrote in his most recent article, Pacquaio is quickly becoming this generation’s version of the greatest fighter who ever lived, in my opinion, Henry Armstrong. Armstrong, in an era of boxing when there were eight divisions and eight champions, at one time simultaneously held 3 of the belts, an amazing accomplishment. Pacquaio started at 108 pounds and has captured multiple titles up to 147 pounds, although in a very watered down field, which doesn’t diminish his feat. He actually has improved as he has gotten bigger and stronger, from a one-dimensional, straight ahead one trick pony (big left hand) to a more well rounded boxer puncher.
Having said that, while I am an avid Manny admirer, you have to take his last two big fights with a grain of salt. While he got plenty of kudos for stopping the bigger Oscar De la Hoya, the truth is that De La Hoya was a shot fighter, with no legs and a very deteriorating skill set. Also, in retrospect, if the smaller Steve Forbes that De la Hoya was supposed to knock out the year before had any kind of punch, he might have beaten Oscar. Damn, any above average boxer who could stick his left out could beat Oscar that night.
Manny’s latest victim, Hatton, may well be an icon in Great Britain, but once again, the sad fact is that for all his charm, as a fighter, he is horribly overrated and a lot of his wins were against hand fed tomato cans. He made his name beating a faded Kostya Tsuyu, and once he went against bigger men, he struggled. He got a gift decision and was badly staggered against light hitting Luis Collazo. He put up a brave effort in probably his best fight ever, a loss to Floyd Mayweather, Jr. While he got ready for the Pacquaio fight, we were told to look at the “new” Ricky’s allegedly brilliant effort against another light puncher, Paulie Malinaggi. I don’t know, I couldn’t get the picture of another fight, a supposed set up fight against journeyman Juan Lazcano, out of my head. In front of his adoring fans in England, Hatton got caught by a right hand and was out on his feet, but, incredibly, the referee stopped the bout —TO TIE RICKY’S SHOES! Talk about home field advantage. That image had me believing that what happened Saturday night was not only possible, but inevitable…
This isn’t to knock Pacquaio. Manny Pacquaio is a great fighter and truly one of the few worth paying your money to see. He has conquered the best fighters in his era and weight classes. His battles with Erik Morales, Marco Antonio Barrera, and Juan Manuel Marquez, were epic, and stamp him as a future Hall Of Famer.
However, if and when he gets into the ring with Floyd Mayweather Jr., he will find someone who is not a sitting duck like his last two opponents, and someone bigger and faster, and it won’t be pretty when Floyd beats him inside of 10 rounds. I’m assuming Floyd hasn’t lost much. I’m no Floyd fan, his cocky act turns me off, but I’m no hater, I understand that he is a special talent. I won’t give Floyd a lot of credit for beating the smaller Pacquaio, just hoping he takes on a real challenge, like Paul Williams. But he won’t…
By the way, in watching HBO’s 24/7 series, Dave has said that Hatton’s trainer for the fight, the ebullient, colorful, and outrageous Floyd Mayweather Sr., is worthy of a 24/7 show just following him around. Well, in my opinion, Mayweather Sr., as a trainer, is a fraud, and has done nothing to deserve the praise he heaps on himself. Hatton was a sill prepared a fighter as I’ve ever seen. I’ll never forget after Oscar De la Hoya had knocked out Fernando Vargas, George Foreman, commenting afterwards, implied De la Hoya won in spite of having Mayweather in his corner. After watching some of Mayweather’s protégés, I tend to agree. All the self promotion may be fun for some to watch, but as Pacquaio’s trainer, a REAL trainer, Freddie Roach, observed, it’s not about the trainer, it’s about the fighter. Mayweather’s act after the fight, not even accompanying Hatton to the locker room, was a disgrace. He called Roach “The Joke Coach.” He should know, he’s the expert on being a joke…
