By Chris Williams: Ricky Hatton (45-1, 32 KOs) takes his so called new style of fighting into this Saturday night’s bout with Manny Pacquiao at the MGM Grand, in Las Vegas. Hatton has said over and over again until he’s blue in the face that he’s a different fighter than he used to be in the earlier part of his boxing career, but Hatton hasn’t had to show it as of yet because he’s only fought Paulie Malignaggi since taking on new trainer Floyd Mayweather Jr.
Since most fighters as old Hatton, who will be turning 31 in October, rarely are able to make any real changes to their style by this late stage in their careers, I expect Hatton to throw out whatever he’s learned as soon as the leather starts flying.
Hatton has always been kind of a crude brawler, and didn’t really ever need to develop any kind of good boxing technique because of the limited opposition he fought earlier in his career.
When he started to face better opponents like Kostya Tszyu, Hatton had the advantage in that Tszyu was 36 and had little left by this stage in his career. Hatton continued his brawling style of fighting into his fight with Floyd Mayweather Jr. in December 2007, and took a bad beating in that fight and was made to look like a fighter way in over his head in terms of class level.
If Hatton’s one-sided beating to Mayweather wasn’t a clue that he needed to change things, Hatton’s next fight, a 12-round decision over journeyman Juan Lazcano in May 2008, was a sure fire signal that Hatton had to try and change things after he was badly hurt by Lazcano in the 8th round after running into one of Lazcano’s left hook.
Out went Billy Graham, Hatton’s old trainer, and in came Mayweather Sr., a defensive expert who specializes in crafting fighters into well rounded defensive fighters. However, the success that Mayweather had with other pupils like his son and Joan Guzman didn’t come over night.
And sometimes, like in the case of Oscar De La Hoya, Mayweather Sr. wasn’t ever able to transfer enough knowledge to keep Oscar from continuing to get hit a lot and lose every so often when he stepped it up against a good opponent.
In Hatton’s case, he’s now had one fight under his belt under Mayweather Sr., beating a weak-punching, non-threat Malignaggi by a 11th round stoppage in November 2008. I wish I could say this experience counts for something going into this Saturday’s fight with Pacquiao, but it doesn’t. Hatton could have fought anyway he pleased against Malignaggi and still would have beaten Malignaggi to a pulp simply because of Hatton’s power advantage.
With Malignaggi throwing basically weak shots at Hatton, it was easy for Ricky to give the appearance that he’s evolved as a fighter since his short time of being trained by Mayweather Sr., but I tell you he probably hasn’t. When Pacquiao starts firing off howitzer shots at Hatton from multiple locations, Hatton is going to go to pieces and start using what worked for him in the past.
But in this case, it won’t work for Hatton because he’s facing a fighter in Pacquiao that is several levels above fighters like Jose Luis Castillo and Ben Tackie, and Hatton won’t be ready for it and will crumble under the strain. Pacquiao will then beat Hatton even worse than he beat De La Hoya, and likely take him out by the 6th or 7th.
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