Could Hatton Have Beaten Pacquiao If Ricky Had Followed Mayweather Sr’s Game Plan?
May 22nd, 2009
By 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.
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.
Tags: 21 Responses to “Could Hatton Have Beaten Pacquiao If Ricky Had Followed Mayweather Sr’s Game Plan?”
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TAKE NOTE OF THIS, WAS MAYWEATHER SR USING HATTON AS A TRIAL RUN AND TO SEE HOW MANNY FIGHTS AND TO FIGURE HIM OUT BEFORE HIS SON FIGHTS.
YES YES YES and also the money.
Hatton may have had a slight chance of beating Pacman if he kept poking out the jab, whilst catching Pacman with big right hands. I didn’t think Hatton would make it out of the 1st round after watching two heavy knockdowns. But he recovered well, and i don’t know if anyone else noticed, but whilst stupidly trying to trade with Pacman in the 2nd, he caught him with a stiff right hand which caused Pacman a bit of trouble. Pacman with a perfect punch to finish it though.
speed and power are lethal. pq has both wihile hatton has only one. following what mayweather was teaching hatton could not help. so the result could have been the same.
I thought Hatton would win.But you can’t teach an old dog new tricks.Manny coudn’t believe he’s luck Ricky walked into he’s punches.A true great
we will never know but 99.9% says no
And hatton was never in my mind a top rated p-f-p fighter which he thought he was….now thats a joke!
padded record..fights a great fighter when hes on the way down(tystsu) i mean REALLY dudes….what greatness did he do with that great WBU (we be useless)title? nothing!
In a word….NO!
And sorry for the multiple posts, but American referees dont allow wrestling?
Utter pish.
They allow it if you are Bernard Hopkins!!!!
That wasnt anonymous, it was me!
Damn computer!!
The fight would have been very different if Hatton had followed Mayweathers defensive tactics, but would he have won? I dont think so.
Pacquiao was underestmated in terms of size, strength and weight, it was expected that Hatton would be the heavier of the two and the stronger, but Pac was 4 lbs lighter and much stronger than expected.
Hatton did no weight training so wasnt as strong as he was in previous outings, without the same strength, his power would have diminished, meaning that even if he had gone into the later rounds, he wouldnt have had the ability to take out a tired Pacman.
1 thing i wana say in Hattons favour in that fight, he could hurt and stop Manny with his power, the couple of times he got through to Pacman it looked like they hurt.
But within 20 seconds of the 1st round it was clear that he had no chance of winning with the way Pacman looked. Even if Hatton had learnt some wonderful new defense the speed and skill of Pacman would of out done Hatton.
Im a big Hatton fan and im sure if hed been alot more careful he could of stretched the fight out a little and got some of his own shots in but Pacman looked so naturally comftable, fast and strong as a JrWelter im convinced it was only a matter of time.
Hatton doesn’t beat Pacquaio in any lifetime.
Hatton was going to use his apparent ‘superior strength’ but when he actually got in the ring it turns out Pac was the one with the superior strength and also speed, power, footwork, head movement. Basically Hatton was totally outclassed. Get over it.
Yeah, Yeah, Yeah… all loser fighters had their own best escape-goat and alibis after the fight.
G A M E O V E R !!!!
what Hatton did is the right thinhg, his chances of winning is better rather than to follow old man Mayweather, If we had to look to the technical aspects of the way Packman fighting skills, the chances of Hatton winning if He slug it out with Packman is 30-70, if he will try to go to the distance iw will be like 10-90, Why, Hatton is slower and the more it will go beyond 8 rounds Packamn will start hitting him badly, because Packman as we had seen in his previous fight his stamina and power seems doesn’t change in later rounds… it is a very simple logic…
If that’s the case, he didn’t learn that much.
TAKE NOTE OF THIS, WAS MAYWEATHER SR USING HATTON AS A TRIAL RUN AND TO SEE HOW MANNY FIGHTS AND TO FIGURE HIM OUT BEFORE HIS SON FIGHTS
It’s funny belowbelt you said Pacquiao was hurt, but it was Hatton who got the spanking and kept kissing the floor and he never said he got hurt. What’s also funny was Pacquiao’s face looks like he just got back from a vacation and Hatton looked like a guy who just got mugged. Sometimes boxing is a complicated sport to understand.
BS – you lot talk a load of nonsense !
yes, had Hatton of stuck to his gameplan and not gone studpidly gung-ho, he would of done substantially better in the fight. Would he ultimately have won ? Well, we’ll never know now … but I take the view that Hatton’s power would of got to Pacman at some point after the mid-point undoubtedly. Would it of been enough to stop manny, again it’s difficult to say.
What many of the unknowing on here state shows a huge lack of understanding about fighter s coming up dramtically in weight. yes, manny carries fanastic speed and we know that speed kills. However, manny stated that Hatton left hurt him at the start of the 2nd round and, to be honest, it was hardly a full-pelt Hatton shot. This is why I honestly feel that the first full-blooded shot Manny takes from a fully-fledged welter will be very revealing indeed ? My view is that it will stop him and badly like Hatton got levelled. I remember one of Pacman’s early fights in which he got clocked on the chin and he was in a right state for almost one minute of the round … I think a real power shot from a Mayweather would have deveasting consequences for Pacman, truly !
Roll on the Mayweather v Pacman fight … but don’t act all surprised when Pacman get’s KO’d horribly ?! Remember that you heard it here first !!
It would have probably prolonged the fight but nevertheless it would have been the same result. Hatton is just too slow, but then who is not compared to Pacquiao. Remember what Diaz and DLH’s corner said, “he’s too fast”. It’s easy to make assessment on how to defend Pacquiao by watching the video but when in the ring it becomes a different story. Pacquiao has the speed of a featherwight and I think has the power of a welterweight.
i have to agree with anon, hatton would never pacquiao ,and if pbf beats marquez which i have no doubt he will, and pacquiao beats his next opponent ,then if the mayweather v pacquiao fight does not happen it will b a great shame for every boxing fan on this planet!!
no matter wot hatton would never ever beat the pacman.do we have to keep raking over all this all the time!! and i give up on boxing if mayweather v pacman dont happen providing they both win there next fights.