Mayweather Sr. thinks the main reason Hatton lost to Pacquiao was because he was scared

By Boxing News - 07/22/2010 - Comments

By William Mackay: A lot of people wonder why Ricky Hatton was so easily destroyed by Manny Pacquiao last year in his two round blowout to the Filipino star. Hatton’s trainer at the time, Floyd Mayweather Sr., gives a number of reasons why he feels that Hatton was beaten by Pacquiao in an article by Chris Robinson at the Examiner.com, Mayweather Sr. says “I think Ricky Hatton was scared more than anything.”

I have to agree with Mayweather Sr. Hatton looked terrified when he entered the ring against Pacquiao on that night in May 2009. Hatton didn’t just look scared then. He had been looking scared during HBO’s Pacquiao/Hatton 24/7 series, and he also looked frightened during the weigh-in with Pacquiao. For whatever reason, Hatton just looked intimidated by Pacquiao.

Hatton made things worse for himself by not following Mayweather’s game plan of trying to box Pacquiao. Instead, Hatton rushed Pacquiao immediately at the opening bell in the 1st round, trying to run over him like he did against most of his over-matched opposition that was fed to him during his career. That was the perfect strategy against the lesser fighters that had been put in with Hatton, but against a world class fighter like Pacquiao, Hatton needed to follow the advice of his trainer Mayweather and not revert back to his primitive style of fighting that he used in the past.

Mayweather Sr. also thinks that Hatton’s assistant trainer Lee Beard made things confusing for Hatton and didn’t help matters. Mayweather Sr. said “The guy Lee Beard was training him when he went back home. He went back there and he trained him [Hatton] all over again…A lot of people told me that when he came back they went into a different game plan. So everything I built, he [Beard] broke it down. You can’t learn from two different trainers. You can only train with one person at a time. ”

Mayweather Sr. may be right. It may have been better had he been the only voice that Hatton was listening to during training camp. However, the outcome probably would have been the same had Beard not been there. Mayweather Sr. acknowledges that, and believes that Hatton would have lost anyway, saying “I really don’t think nothing could have changed what happened in the fight. It probably would have been a matter of how long it lasted.”

It’s really admirable that Mayweather Sr. is real about this. A lot of trainers would have not faced up to the truth and probably claimed that their fighter would have won had this or that happened. Mayweather Sr. at least acknowledges that Hatton was basically screwed no matter what on that night. However, Hatton sure didn’t help himself by rushing Pacquiao like he had lost his senses completely and didn’t learn a thing from Mayweather Sr. during their training camp.



Comments are closed.