By Chris Williams: As we get closer and closer to this Saturday’s bout between Ricky Hatton and Manny Pacquiao, it’s become pretty clear that not too many boxing fans are on the side of Hatton in this fight. It didn’t start out that way a couple of months ago. At that time, there were legions of Hatton fans saying that he would be too big for the smaller, former featherweight Pacquiao.
What has changed since then? It’s hard to say for sure, but this Saturday night Hatton looks to be a big underdog when he steps in the ring with Pacquiao at the MGM Grand, in Las Vegas, Nevada. The fact that fans are picking against him isn’t lost on Hatton, who said “I can understand I am the underdog but it doesn’t scare me.”
However, Hatton clearly looked bothered by it and after quickly speaking at a recent press conference in Las Vegas, sat down and looked visibly upset. What does Hatton expect from fans? Come on, if they think Pacquiao is the better fighter, why should they hide it? If this was a checkers championship would fans hold back their predictions out of fear of hurting one of the player’s feelings?
It is what it is. Boxing fans are jumping ship because Pacquiao looks better in training, seems to have an aura of invincibility and Hatton seems to have none of those things going for him. The chemistry between Hatton and his trainer Floyd Mayweather Sr. seems off for some reason.
They don’t seem to connect well with one another, and the new training for Hatton seems all wrong for him. He doesn’t look like he’s taking to the new training from what I’ve seen and he’d probably be better off if he had stuck it out with his old trainer Billy Graham instead of switching to Mayweather Sr. at this late stage in Hatton’s career. Did Muhammad Ali dump Angelo Dundee when Ali began to lose late in his career? Nope!
Hatton said, “I was written off at the start when I first won this title from Kostya Tszyu, which seems a lifetime ago now. I think I was the 5-1 underdog then so I’m used to being in this position again.” I hate to break this to Hatton, but the win over Tszyu wasn’t that big of deal because Tszyu was an old 36 by the time that Hatton fought him, so it’s not something that is particularly impressive that Hatton was able to wear the older Tszyu down and beat him four years ago.
I’m guessing right about now, Hatton is finding himself in the same position that Tszyu was back in 2005. Although Hatton is six years younger than Tszyu, he’s fought many of the same weight issues in having to take off a lot of weight in order to get down in weight. Forget about Hatton’s 30-year-old chronological age, he might actually be four or five years older in physical age due to his constant binging between fights.
For his part, Pacquiao always stays close to his fighting weight and doesn’t balloon up like Hatton does. The weight issue likely is one of the reasons why boxing fans are abandoning Hatton and choosing Pacquiao to beat him this Saturday. I know for me, that’s a big factor in me picking Pacquiao to win.
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