Hatton-Pacquiao: Is Manny Vulnerable At Close Range?

By Boxing News - 02/24/2009 - Comments

pacquiao4545433By Jason Kim: Say what you will about Ricky Hatton’s poor boxing ability and limited hand speed and reach, on the inside he rules this fight and has a big advantage of Manny Pacquiao. Although his fans would be the last to admit it, Pacquiao is only an average fighter when you get him in close or when he’s cornered by an opponent. Case in point, Pacquiao’s two fights against Juan Manuel Marquez, both of which saw Pacquiao get bettered on the inside and was forced to struggle.

This is where Hatton can really give Pacquiao problems if he’s smart, because Manny will be trying hard to keep the fight on the outside where he can take advantage of his quick feet and movement in order to box circles around the slower Hatton.

I normally wouldn’t advise Hatton to rush in on an opponent but in this case he’s probably better off doing that, because Pacquiao will try hard to be elusive as possible to prevent Hatton from getting in close. Not letting Pacquiao get away too far is something that Hatton needs to be mindful of, because he can’t let Pacquiao escape from his clutches if he can get him cornered.

My advice would be to stay low and shoot forward quickly as Pacquiao backs away. Hatton will have to keep his guard up because Pacquiao is quite good at throwing a short right hook while backing up and if Hatton isn’t ready for the shot he could get knocked down or hurt.

Also, I wouldn’t normally recommend Hatton fighting dirty, but in this case I think it wouldn’t hurt for him to try to get away with as much as possible. After all, winning is the only thing that matters and how you do it is irrelevant. My advice would be for Hatton to nail Pacquiao with elbows, head butts, forearms and mix in a lot of holding and hitting.

In the past, Hatton has proven himself to be quite good at each of these items and I think he can put them to good use against Pacquiao. You can’t overlook an occasional low blow as well. Those are valuable tools that Hatton can pull from his tool chest if things don’t work out for him. Against Kostya Tszyu, they were a life saver when Hatton nailed Tszyu with a big right hand low in the fight after having been tagged by Kostya moments earlier.

That’s why when Hatton throws something low, he’s got to dig deep and make it count because it can’t be just a small shot if he wants to take Pacquiao off his game. Who knows? Hatton can probably still win without the dirty tactics, just as long as he stays in close to Pacquiao and forces him to fight at close range, but in adding a little dirt to the fight, it will make it much tougher for Pacquiao to compete against Hatton.

Ricky’s dirty inside tactics are tools that Pacquiao has never really uses before in a fight and my guess is that even when Hatton begins to use them on him, Pacquiao won’t have the desire to fire back nor will he have the expertise that Hatton has in using the dirty stuff. You got to do what you got to do, and there’s no point in keeping a fight clean if Hatton can get away with a few fouls and win the fight.



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