By Manuel Perez: Okay, I’ve now seen episode #2 of the Pacquiao-Hatton 24/7 HBO special and it’s got to be some of the most boring footage I’ve ever seen in my life. I thought the De La Hoya-Pacquiao 24/7 special was boring, but this one has got a special place all for itself. A lot of wasted video of scenery, time spent on a person living in Freddie Roach’s gym, useless footage of Ricky Hatton’s girlfriend, and little time spent on the actual fighters.
In particular, there’s next to none of Pacquiao video shown in episode #2 and they might as well just left the footage that they did capture on the editing room floor. I wish I was in charge of the show; I’d get some real feeling out of these people. Forget the dull chumminess between Roach and his assistant trainer Michael Moorer.
I would play up any hostilities between them and try to see if there’s any hidden anger in there somewhere. After all, Moorer was a much better fighter than Roach in his career and won titles in the light heavyweight and heavyweight division. I’d like to have seen more footage of the maverick Moorer taking charge of the gym and putting Pacquiao through his paces.
I would have liked to have seen Moorer put on the gloves and spar with Pacquiao for several rounds. That’s the only way that you can really mimic a fighter like Hatton. You got to have a bull out there like Moorer, who could show Pacquiao the kind of power shots that he’s going to be getting hit with by Hatton on May 2nd.
As far as footage of Hatton’s parents goes, I’d edit all that out. This isn’t needed, isn’t interesting and misses what the target audiences (people like me) are interested in watching. I think this stuff only works on corny, old fashioned type people who get into the sentimental type stuff. It misses completely in this day and age, so it’s got to go. So if I’m in charge, I’m firing whoever has been directing the scenes of the first two episodes of Pacquiao-Hatton 24/7 and taking over the direction of the process myself.
Hatton’s trainer, Floyd Mayweather Sr. needs to be included much more, because he has charisma, like his brother Roger although not nearly as much, and is much more interesting than the video of Hatton alone. Hatton is frankly boring, so you have to put him in with interesting people like Mayweather Sr. at all times to prevent people from turning the channel. I’d play up more practical jokes by Hatton, and try to get footage of Mayweather Sr. reading Hatton the riot act for his training.
What we’re looking for is some reality, and not the self conscious acting by Roach or Moorer. I don’t what to do with them frankly other than to try to focus more on Moorer and Pacquiao. Roach seems to be kind of a repellant to me for some reason. I guess I can’t understand what he’s saying and when he does say things, it seems as if he’s looking to get a lot of attention on him rather than Pacquiao.
That puts me off and turns my camera away from him completely. It’s not interesting to see Moorer reduced to charging people one dollar for leaning on a counter. That didn’t need to be there and it would have never made my edit. Actually, I would never film it in the first place unless Moorer did something interesting, like boot someone from the gym for leaning on his counter – Now that’s semi interesting as long as he’s showing some genuine anger in throwing him out.
The video of Pacquiao pounding Roach while Freddie is wearing that ridiculous looking body pad has to go. That looks bad and makes Roach look funny and Pacquiao small. We need to put Pacquiao in with a smaller fighter so that Pacquiao looks bigger than he is. A lot of American’s probably can’t identify with seeing a really small fighter like Pacquiao pounding on a slow moving trainer with a body pad.
If I had to, I’d have the pad put on Moorer and tell him to swat Pacquiao every once in a while with a left hook to make sure Pacquiao realizes that this is a real fighter that he’s training for and not a wax dummy. Of course, Moorer would have to take most of his power off his shots because he’d put Pacquiao in a coma if he ever hit Manny with a left hook with all his power behind it. The video of Roach and Mayweather Sr. in their cars has got to go. That was useless and didn’t further the story lines any. Who cares about seeing them drive and talk on their cell phones?
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