Mayweather Hatton: Is Floyd A Troubled Person?

By Boxing News - 12/01/2007 - Comments

As the days draw nearer to the fight, both Ricky Hatton and Floyd Mayweather Jr. seem to have accelerated the insults that they’ve been throwing at each other, almost as if that’s a contest all in itself. Each time I think that Mayweather has it won, Hatton throws a perfect insult which seems to get under Mayweather’s skin far more than the comments he’s making daily about Hatton.

Mayweather then seems to go overboard, trying to exact revenge for what seems to be mild criticism from Hatton. For his part, Hatton appears to be mostly analyzing Mayweather’s behavior rather making predictions on the fight, as he points out Mayweather’s insecurities. It’s kind of rare for me to see this, because usually both fighters are describing how they’re going to take each other’s heads off, but Hatton is approaching it like he’s doing field work in abnormal psychology. Instead of listening to what Hatton has to say, Mayweather is out to try and even the score, even though nothing of what he’s saying is registering with Hatton.

In truth, he seems to be someone that doesn’t like pain at all, and has a whole lot of mental baggage that he drags around with him everywhere. In a real way, Mayweather seems transparent in all his poses, as if he’s play-acting the tough guy image in an effort to both scare his opponents, and perhaps to convince himself that he’s tough. Yet, if you take a real good look at him, he really seems troubled and not really functioning on all cylinders mentally. All the things that he does – his tendency to carry around large sums of cash, his preoccupation with money, his constant re-hashing his memories of being beaten by his father, and his almost non-stop insults of his opponents, point to a person that doesn’t have his head on straight.

Some people may see this as normal, but if you look closely at Mayweather, he doesn’t really seem to be happy despite all the money he has. Mostly, he seems lost, bitter, and unhappy with himself. You’d think he’d feel differently considering he’s got so many fans and so much athletic talent, but it doesn’t seem to make him happy. Imagine, if you will, what will happen should he lose to Hatton on December 8th? Mayweather hasn’t lost a bout in years, going all the way to amateur days. Is boxing the only thing holding Mayweather together mentally?

Apart from all this back and forth bickering, there’s the matter of the actual fight that’s still to take place on December 8th. Perhaps for most people, they seem to be picking Mayweather to win the bout because he seems like the smart choice due to his remarkable boxing skills.

Hatton has his own small band of fans, though most of them appear a little less vocal than Mayweather’s, possibly because they’re so outnumbered. As I’ve watched both fighters being interviewed over and over again, including the video on the HBO Mayweather-Hatton series, I came to the conclusion that Mayweather was dead certain that he’s going to win the bout. At first glance, he seemed to really appear like it’s an inevitable conclusion that he’s going to wipe the deck with Hatton and possibly humiliate him in the process. But, the more I see Mayweather in interviews and on television, he seems really vulnerable for an upset, like he’s someone that can be broken down mentally with enough pressure applied by Hatton.