By Jim Dower: In an interview on Sky Sports, Hatton hinted at retirement in 2009, saying that if he can beat both Floyd Mayweather Jr. and Manny Pacquiao in 2009, that he’d have to review his options and make a decision about his future direction. Unfortunately, the chances of Hatton beating both Pacquiao and Mayweather are probably about as good as you are me hitting the lottery and striking it rich. Hatton is still leaning in the direction of facing Pacquiao next, though Mayweather remains an option if things don’t work out with Pacquiao.
Hatton, 30, has already been beaten by Mayweather in 2007, losing by a 10th round stoppage in a one-sided fight. The fight was hardly close after the first six rounds, making it difficult to envision a rematch being any different than the first fight.
The only difference now being that Hatton is a year older, and is currently being trained by Floyd’s father, Mayweather Sr., who one would assume, would train Hatton for his rematch with Mayweather Jr. That would set up a weird situation with the father training someone to beat his son, making it interesting as the fighters prepare for their bout with one another.
Besides Mayweather, Hatton will probably be extremely fortunate if he’s able to beat Pacquiao, who is considered the best pound for pound fighter in all of boxing. Hatton doesn’t match up well with Pacquiao in terms of speed or ability to get around the ring.
Pacquiao also doesn’t fight on the inside, the area of Hatton’s main expertise. On the outside is where Pacquiao prefers to fight, and an area where Hatton is much less effective and beatable to fast punchers. Without the ability to wrestle on the inside, Hatton’s game is changed substantially, making him more human and less of a dangerous puncher than he normally is if allowed to fight where he wants to.
Additionally, Pacquiao is good at picking off his opponents in mid attack, and making them pay with big shots. That’s not a good thing for Hatton, who likes to take a lot of chances by throwing big hooks from the outside.
In all probability, Hatton may very end up losing to both Pacquiao and Mayweather, with the only question being how bad. For Hatton fans, in a sick and twisted way, that may be a good thing, because if he loses to both, he’ll probably want to stick around for a lot longer, trying to figure how to improve his game enough to beat them.
Of course, by then both Mayweather and Pacquiao may no longer have any interest in fighting Hatton again, that is, unless the fights are competitive and make boatloads of money. In that case, they may want to fight him just for the payday.
With Mayweather Sr. training him, Hatton would probably feel that he can someday be good enough to beat both Mayweather and Pacquiao, as remote a possibility as that may seem, but it won’t be an easy task that’s for sure. Mayweather and Pacquiao appear to be on another level right now, and until Hatton proves that he belongs with them, he’s going to have to be satisfied on being just entertaining fighter but not a truly great one.
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