Just as most fans thought it would be, boxing’s pound-4-pound king Floyd Mayweather Jr. (39-0, 25 KOs) toyed with Ricky Hatton (43-1, 31 KOs) en route to eventually stopping him in the 10th round last night at the MGM Grand, in Las Vegas, Nevada. In the early rounds, Hatton, 29, fouled constantly with numerous rabbit punches, wrestling and constant holding and hitting, eventually causing Hatton to be docked a point by referee Joe Cortez.
None of the fouling had any effect on Mayweather, who calmly want tattoo Hatton with hard shots whenever he could get punching room. By the 8th round, Mayweather was finding it increasingly easy to hit the wild punching Hatton with counter shots as he came in. Part of the reason for Mayweather’s success, however, was because Hatton had become reckless, fighting without thought of any defense as he charged forward at Mayweather, windmilling his arms almost like a rank amateur.
While that style has been effective for Hatton against the lower quality British opposition that he’s mostly fought in England, it didn’t work against the talented Mayweather, who merely picked Hatton apart systematically.
In the 10th round, Hatton was a beaten fighter and looking madly disparate to try and catch up in the fight. On one of Hatton’s mad charges, Mayweather stepped to the side, letting Hatton fly by, and then hitting him with a left hook and dropping him. Moments after Hatton got up, Mayweather pounded him with a quick flurry causing Hatton to stumble to the canvas for the final time.
December 15th, 2007 at 6:52 pm