The adviser for WBC welterweight champion Floyd Mayweather (38-0, 24 KOs), Leonard Ellerbe, is predicting a knockout win for Mayweather over Ricky Hatton, according to John Martinez of eastsideboxing.com. “This fight is the biggest fight that Hatton has ever been in. For Floyd, all he is going to do is be himself and that is the six-time world champion in five different weight classes and undefeated in eight years.
Whatever Hatton attempts to do, it won’t be good enough.” Ellerbe states that Hatton will come up short, saying in part that he won’t have the tools to defeat the six-time champion Mayweather, who has dominated virtually all his opponents up to this point in his 10-year boxing career. Ellerbe suggests that Mayweather is simply at a higher class level than Hatton, that he won’t be able to deal with the exceptional skills that Mayweather will have at his disposal.
To be sure, Mayweather is clearly the best boxer that Hatton will have faced in his career, there’s no question about that. However, Hatton, a year younger at 29, looks to be in impressive shape and figures to make it tough for Mayweather. Hatton will likely force Mayweather to fight in close, similar to his fight with Jose Luis Castillo, working the body and head with rapid fire hooks. It will likely be a typical Hatton mugging, and unless the referee does anything to keep Hatton under relative control, he’s likely to land a fair share of elbows and low blows. All this on top of Hatton’s usual rough-house wrestling tactics, something he uses to tire out his opponents over the course of the bout.
It will be tough for Mayweather, a fighter that likes to hit and run, to keep the fight on the outside, because Hatton closes distance so well, and doesn’t allow his opponents to ever get any space between him. Thus every time Mayweather will attempt to dance around or move away, Hatton will most likely be glued to his body, throwing constant hooks or holding and hitting. It’s not an easy style to beat and Mayweather will surely have his hands full with Hatton.