By Matt Stein: This Saturday night, 30-year-old Ricky Hatton (45-1, 32 KOs) finds himself in perhaps the biggest fight of his career in facing Filipino star Manny Pacquiao (48-3-2, 36 KOs) at the MGM Grand, in Las Vegas. This is a fight that due to Hatton’s age, and his own personal three fight time line that he set for himself, is one that he can ill afford to lose.
In watching Hatton and Pacquiao train recently, and after reviewing their last three fights, it looks as if Hatton has the deck stacked against him this Saturday. In the past, Hatton was always able to fight above his level of talent by fighting in the safe confines of Manchester Stadium, where Hatton seemed to thrive on the screams from 50,000 die hard Hatton fans.
However, in the last three years, Hatton has fought five of six fights in the United States, and has had to deal with having many less rabid boxing fans rooting for him. I don’t if this is just a coincidence or not, but Hatton has looked much less impressive in these fights than he did while fighting in front of his British fans in Manchester.
The word is that many of Hatton’s fans have purchased tickets by the handfuls for his bout with Pacquiao this Saturday, but whether it will be enough to drown out the many Filipino fans of Pacquiao is the big unknown. Pacquiao has a lot of fans in the U.S, that go beyond nationality, fans that like to see great fighters regardless of where they come from.
Now, I’m sure that many more Brits will be buying tickets for this fight and traveling from England in comparison to Filipino fans, obviously because the British economy is better than the Philippines. However, Hatton seems to fight his best when he’s in front of a huge audience of pure fans of his without any competing voices that are cheering against him.
The best scenario is that the huge amount of Brits that do show up can somehow scream loudly enough to drown out any other fans in the arena and give Hatton the same kind of feeling and support that he previously used to get while fighting in Manchester.
I’ve watched many fights of Filipino stars in the Philippines and noted that their fans are equally loud, although not quite to the level of the Brit fans with all their repetitious soccer-type songs that they typically chant over and over throughout the fights.
So possibly, if Hatton’s fell Brits can scream loudly enough, there’s a chance that Hatton may be able to fight beyond his ability, enough possibly to edge Pacquiao by a narrow decision. I doubt seriously that Hatton could fight well enough to knock Pacquiao out, mind you, but I think Hatton can win enough rounds to get a decision victory if his Brit fans make a heck of a lot of noise like they usually do.
The question is whether enough of them have made the trip to Las Vegas in big enough numbers to drown out the fans of Pacquiao. I doubt that there will be enough of them making the trip due to the poor economy, which means that Hatton will live or die based on his existing talent and will have to win without the adrenalin rush that he gets from his fans. I don’t see that happening.
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