By Sean McDaniel: I recently watched the old fight between Floyd Mayweather Jr. and Ricky Hatton from 2007, and I was appalled at how Hatton was kept from fighting on the inside by the referee Joe Cortez that worked the fight.
I had forgotten how many breaks in the action that had occurred in that fight and in seeing it again years later was a real eye opener for me.
It seemed like each time that Hatton would try to work on the inside against Mayweather and get something going, Cortez would jump in and pull Hatton off of Mayweather and then restart them at the center of the ring. Hatton, an inside fighter by trade, never seemed to get a fair change in the fight with all the breaks in the action.
It was pretty sad to see the guy come all the way to U.S from England and then have to experience that. I’m not sure who’s idea it was to have Cortez work the fight, but whoever it was it sure ended up working out good for Mayweather.
And after the fight, Mayweather mugged in front of the camera s with one arm draped around the neck of Cortez, as if to say ‘thanks, buddy.’ It was off putting. I think Hatton would have done so much better had a more hands off referee worked the fight like Steve Smoger, who would have likely stepped back and let Hatton work when in close.
There wasn’t any clinches to speak of. When Hatton was in close, he was always trying to work and was throwing punches. But Cortez kept swooping constantly and breaking the action while Hatton was trying to work on the inside.
It’s too bad Hatton try and get a rematch with a different referee and maybe a different venue because I think he could have done a lot better than he did if he was able to his fight. I think Hatton would have taken Mayweather if he had a referee that actually let him fight instead of pulling him off of Mayweather.
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