By Scott Gilfoid: The latest in the war of words is that Ricky Hatton’s assistant trainer Lee Beard is predicting a 6th round stoppage of Manny Pacquiao. Yeah, right. That isn’t going to happen, except maybe in Hatton’s dreams or something. Though I wouldn’t mind seeing Pacquiao get stretched, because he’s pretty overrated as far as I can tell. A loss to Hatton would be a good thing for him. It’s too bad Hatton doesn’t have the ability to make that happen.
No, I see this as one of those terrible mismatches that you want to walk away from. You know, the type where someone is getting pummeled helplessly for 12 rounds, yet the referee stands idly buy, leaning forward, studying the action but not stepping in and halting the slaughter.
I think Hatton could do well if the right circumstances take place, like, for instance, if Pacquiao suffers a bad injury to his wrist or hand, turning him into a one-armed fighter. To be honest, I think Pacquiao would still beat Hatton in that case. I guess it would have to be an injury involving both of Pacquiao’s arms or hands, leaving him with just his legs to move around.
Now, I could see Hatton winning a fight with him if that were to take place, but that’s the only way I can see him winning. I don’t even think Hatton belongs in the ring with Pacquiao. We should be seeing some fighters with talent like Timothy Bradley, Junior Witter or Kendall Holt rather than Hatton. I already disqualify Hatton for his loss to Floyd Mayweather Jr. in 2007.
He shouldn’t be allowed to take a fight of this magnitude until he piled up some notable wins over top talent. I don’t count Juan Lazcano and Paulie Malignaggi as being good enough to make that happen. If it were up to me, Hatton would have to beat the following fighters in order to get a shot at Pacquiao: Ricardo Torres, Marcos Maidana, Junior Witter and Joan Guzman.
If Hatton is still in one piece after all those fights, then by all means let him go ahead and fight Pacquiao. Short of that, then he gets back in line like the rest of the light welterweights and fights his way back to title shot.
Hatton should have lost his fight to Lazcano if you ask me. Lazcano hurt him in the 8th with a short left hook. Hatton was able to buy some time by getting the fight stopped to have his shoelaces tied right in the middle of him being staggered and hurt. Up until then, I’d never seen a fighter make that move while hurt. I got to hand it to Hatton, it kept him from taking more punishment and getting knocked out.
I have no idea what Hatton is planning on doing to put him in the position to win the fight with Pacquiao. All the other stuff that Hatton normally does – clinching and wrestling, probably won’t be allowed by the referee, putting Hatton in the position where he’ll have to use a backup plan if he hopes to win. He won’t win, but it will be interesting to see the lengths that he goes to try and get the victory. Sure hope he doesn’t foul.
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