By Chris Williams: Manny Pacquiao has signed the contract and faxed it to the headquarters of Top Rank and it looks as if the fight will now go ahead once Ricky Hatton signs the contract which he is expected to do. Hatton recently walked away from negotiations after tiring of waiting for Pacquiao to sign the contract, but after a couple of days in which Hatton was looking into other options, Pacquiao changed his mind and agreed to accept the 52-48 purse split. According to Hatton’s lawyer, Gareth William, they expect announce the fight on Thursday in a press conference.
Hatton, 30, is taking a huge gamble in making this fight, because he’s taken it easy since losing by a 10th round TKO to Floyd Mayweather Jr. in December 2007. Since that time, Hatton has fought Juan Lazcano and Paulie Malignaggi, neither real big hitters and not quite at the level of some of the other top fighters in the light welterweight division.
Both Malignaggi and Lazcano are respectable fighters, but not the type of fighters that I consider on the level of some of the other fighters in the division that Hatton has somehow chosen not to fight for one reason or another.
Yet, Hatton is still considered to be the top fighter in the division by default without having to fight the best based on his wins over veterans Kostya Tszyu, Jose Luis Castillo, Vince Phillips, Ben Tackie, and a close win over Luis Castillo, perhaps Hatton’s best wins of his 12-year career.
In contrast, Pacquiao has wins over Juan Manuel Marquez, Oscar De La Hoya, David Diaz, Marco Antonio Barrera, Erik Morales, and Jorge Solis, which is probably why Manny is able to command a large slice of the PPV pie. In taking a glance at both Hatton and Pacquiao’s recent performances, it would seem that Pacquiao is fighting at a higher level right now.
He’s looked near unbeatable in his fights with Diaz, Marquez and De La Hoya, whereas Hatton took punishment against Lazcano. The fight with Malignaggi was pretty much one-sided but Malignaggi had little power to begin and wasn’t much of a threat against Hatton in comparison to other big punches out there in the light welterweight division.
This is what many critics point to when they suggest that Hatton hasn’t proven himself in the light welterweight division for a number of years dating back to his fight with Tszyu, and possibly isn’t even the best fighter in the division any longer. Rather than silence the critics by facing one or two of the best light welterweights in the division like Timothy Bradley, Junior Witter, Kendall Holt, Hatton has moved from a loss to Mayweather into fights with Lazcano and Malignaggi, good light welterweights but probably not on the level of Bradley, Witter, Holt or Ricardo Torres.
Comments are closed.