Pacquiao vs. Hatton: Is This a Sporting Fight?

By Jim Dower: After watching Ricky Hatton struggle against Juan Lazcano, looking good at times and appearing a little washed up as a fighter at other times, I wonder whether Hatton should opt for a fight against super featherweight Manny Pacquiao. First of all, I don’t think it’s a fight that Hatton could win at this point in his career judging by his recent performances against Floyd Mayweather Jr. and Lazcano, fights which seemed to indicate that Hatton was on the downside of his career. Most importantly, however, is the question of fairness.

It looks bad when a fighter that has struggled recently, as Hatton has, takes on a fighter two classes below him in weight. It just seems off-putting, as if Hatton - if he does decide on taking this fight - is taking on a fighter that he feels that he could beat given his huge size advantage. Never mind the fact that Pacquiao is the better fighter and would surprise many by upsetting Hatton, but it still jumps out at you as a fight that’s largely unfair, unwise and not appealing to one sense of sportsmenship.

It’s bad enough, I think, that Hatton is choosing to fight IBF light welterweight champion Paulie Malignaggi rather than the better fighters in the light welterweight division such as Timothy Bradley and Ricardo Torres, both of which are much more dangerous fighters than Malignaggi. That seems bad enough for Hatton, but to go one step further and take on Pacquiao, who looks much smaller than Hatton, it seems almost criminal to me. Why fight Pacquiao, when you have other opponents your own size like Bradley and Torres?

I’m really hoping that Hatton decides against this fight because it seems almost like a circus act, and it wouldn’t leave Hatton looking his best, especially if he gets beaten senseless by the quicker Pacquiao. I suppose that’s something that Hatton hasn’t even though of - him getting beaten badly - but could you imagine the effect that it would have on his career if Hatton is beaten to a pulp by a fighter much smaller than him like Pacquiao? It’s one thing to be beaten by someone like Mayweather or De La Hoya, but quite another to be knocked out by a fighter two weight classes below him like Pacquiao.

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Posted June 11th, 2008 l 975 Views

Tags: Boxing, Ricky Hatton, Manny Pacquiao

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Comments

trick79:

Hmmm, Im a massive Ricky Hatton fan and hope that he can continue to climb back up the world boxing ladder on his comeback. Ricky looked Sharp as hell in delivering the blows against Lazcano - but his defense wasnt great. He was hurt on a number of occasions during the fight and even got countered by the same punch that Mayweather knocked him out with at one point. However Ricky was pehaps over eager to get in and hurt his opponent thus forgetting his defense. I think Rick has more in the tank- lets not forget that his only loss is to the best in the sport. On that faithful night mayweather was superb aswell aswell as dirty and at time looked terrified of hatton, Hatton would never beat mayweather but he couldnt have had a worse night to fight the best in boxing. Had the Ref not been so obviously biased we may have seen a much close fight.

posted June 14th, 2008 at 3:02 pm

Johhny Gamble:

It amazes me how anti- Hatton alot of people are.
He’s only lost 1 fight in his career and that was to the worlds best fighter.
I thought he put in a very good performance against a very durable oppenent in Lazcano.
Its clear his best weight is 140 so why should he try and take on bigger men such as Cotto or DLH.
Pacman is my favourite fighter but I think a fighter against a guy as big as Hatton would be too much for him.

posted June 13th, 2008 at 6:41 am

tim lees:

sorry but wrong. If Hatton had not fought Mayweather and had gone straight from Castillo to Lazcano, the public would be saying how good Ricky is and that it was a complete performance, again. Because Ricky lost to Floyd, all the critics are out and want Hatton to fall. The facts are..Ricky came back and I for one was fascinated how he would perform. The pressure he was facing was different to anything previous, including Mayweather, and he completely delivered. All this rubbish about him being washed up and on the decline is complete garbage, he dominated the fight and could not have done more except knock the guy out, which was unrealistic. Hatton will continue to defy the critics and climb back to the top, he is a superb fighter and has started to box again, because of this he will be even better than pre mayweather.

posted June 12th, 2008 at 2:43 am

Pacquiao vs. Hatton: Is This a Sporting Fight?

Comments

trick79:

Johhny Gamble:

ron u.k.:

tim lees:

goldenboy: