Will Hatton’s Bum Rushing Work On Pacquiao?

By Boxing News - 01/31/2009 - Comments

hatton45555By Sean McDaniel: Supposedly, Ricky Hatton has changed a lot since taking on new trainer Floyd Mayweather Sr., no longer madly bum rushing his opponents and leaving himself open for punches on the way in. Let’s hope that’s true for Hatton’s sake, because I think that tactic might not be effective against Manny Pacquiao on May 2nd. At 30, old fighters rarely are able to make notable changes to their fighting style no matter how hard they try.

They start of eagerly in training camp when discussing a change of style with their trainer, yet when they get in the ring in a live fight, the fighter more often than not resort to fighting just as they did for most of their career. For that reason, I think it’s safe to say that Hatton will probably be using his customary bum rushing attack style against Pacquiao.

The question, then, is whether this will work or not? Hatton has had good success with his wild attacks through much of his career, beating a long laundry list of mostly B and C level fighters, while occasionally beating an A fighter. But, he’s had problems in two of his last three fights when making his kamikaze attacks against Floyd Mayweather Jr. and Juan Lazcano.

In each case, Hatton was met with a short left hook when flying forward and badly hurt. I remember seeing Hatton fight years ago and thinking that his wild, amateurish attacks would be his undoing some day when he stepped it up against better competition.

As it turns out, I was dead on right as Mayweather took advantage of Hatton’s aggression and turned it against him by hitting him when he was rushing forward. Against Paulie Malignaggi, Hatton’s last fight, Hatton didn’t come in with his wild attacks nearly as often, but then again he didn’t need to because Malignaggi was so hopelessly over-matched in this fight and didn’t have the tools to make Hatton pay.

Pacquiao does, though. If Hatton decides to try his usual straight line attack on Pacquiao, I can see him failing in a big way against the Filipino star. Pacquiao will time him probably meet him with a either a short right hook or a straight left hand as Hatton comes wildly rushing in, with the end result of Hatton probably kissing the canvas.

The problem for Hatton is that without his wild style of attacking, he has few other offensive tools to fall back on. His jab is poor and rarely uses and his straight right hand and left hook to the head aren’t all that impressive either.

Though he does punch well to the body with either hand, but that’s not something that will work for him against Pacquiao, who tends to fight on the outside rather than the inside, like Hatton. As such, Hatton may have no other choice but to take a big risk by coming in with his risky, wild child style of fighting because if he stays on the outside or if he focuses on trying to pick Pacquiao off with stray lefts and rights, he’s likely to come up empty.



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