Could Hatton Have Beaten Pacquiao If Ricky Had Followed Mayweather Sr’s Game Plan?

By Boxing News - 05/22/2009 - Comments

hat3556By William Mackay: While most of the boxing world feels that Ricky Hatton would have lost regardless of whether or not he followed his trainer Floyd Mayweather Sr’s game plan for fighting Manny Pacquiao, Floyd Mayweather Jr. still feels that Hatton would have done well enough to defeat Pacquiao if he had stuck to the original game plan set out by Mayweather Sr. Hatton had been told before the Pacquiao bout to focus on his defense, to use his jab and to avoid going out and trying to brawl with the quicker Pacquiao.

As it turned out, Hatton did the exact opposite of that, trying to slug with Pacquiao and dropped frequently in the first two round and eventually stopped in the 2nd round. However, it’s interested to consider what had happened if Hatton had stuck to his jab, used movement and clinched Pacquiao when he came in close trying to land big shots.

It’s hard to imagine Hatton keeping his guard up against Pacquiao, because other than the fight against Paulie Malignaggi, Hatton had been wide open defensively in pretty much all of his fights before that time. Hatton had actually prided himself in his tendency to slug with his opponents and wrestle them on the inside.

Hatton got away with extracurricular roughhouse tactics up until he started fighting in the U.S. After that point, Hatton’s wrestling, fouling and holding and hitting was policed up by the U.S. referees who didn’t have patience for that kind of fighting.

Besides, in America fighters are rewarded for wrestling and holding on the inside, because boxing fans here want action instead. However, given that Hatton never really showed that he had Mayweather Sr’s fighting style learned, we could assume that Hatton would have used a blend of his old style of wrestling on the inside along with his use of Mayweather’s jabbing and defensive oriented style of fighting.

With the way that Pacquiao was pressing Hatton by coming straight at him, it would have taken a lot of lateral movement, jabs and clinching on Hatton’s part to prevent being picked apart in Pacquiao’s attacks. It seems as if Hatton did train for Pacquiao’s right hook.

This, too, could be another thing that Hatton forgot that was taught to him by Mayweather Sr., because it seems rather odd that Floyd would have skipped over teaching Hatton how to defend against one of Pacquiao’s major weapons.

I saw long ago back in Pacquiao’s third fight with Erik Morales that his right hook was now perhaps his best weapon, so I have a hard time believing that Hatton wasn’t trained how to avoid getting hit with this punch. If Hatton could have focused entirely on his defense for the first six to seven rounds of the fight, Hatton would have had a better chance at landing something big against Pacquiao as the fight wore on.

Pacquiao has a lot of scar tissue around his eyes and I noticed in his fights with Juan Manuel Marquez and Erik Morales that Pacquiao was a much different fighter after being cut over the eyes, fighting more passively than before.

All Hatton would have had to do is stick around, and avoid exchanges. Whether this would have been enough is unknown because Hatton never really showed that he had learned the style that Mayweather Sr. was trying to teach him.



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