By Chris Williams: Ricky Hatton came out this week and said that Floyd Mayweather Jr. would wipe the deck with Manny Pacquiao if they were to ever get around to fighting. This is yet another fighter that sees clearly that Mayweather is simply too god for the smaller Filipino fighter and would make mincemeat of him if Pacquiao’s promoter Bob Arum would allow Pacquiao to fight Mayweather.

Arum does a good job of protecting his fighters. If you don’t believe me, look at how Arum has protected WBC middleweight champion Julio Cesar Chavez Jr. for what seems like forever by not putting him against guys would likely knock him out.

Hatton feels that Mayweather is too intelligent in the ring for Pacquiao to handle and he would pick him apart slowly. Hatton says he’s always felt that Mayweather would school Pacquiao if they fought. Hatton didn’t just come up with this recently after watching Pacquiao win by a gift decision over Juan Manuel Marquez last month. Hatton has always seen Mayweather as a class above the brawling Pacquiao. Hatton likes Pacquiao better as a person than he does Mayweather, but as far as in the ring, Hatton sees Mayweather as being the better fighter.

You have to imagine that Arum feels the same way too, because he hasn’t been in any kind of hurray to match his gravy train fighter Pacquiao up with Mayweather and it’s pretty obvious why he’s been so reluctant to do that. Mayweather would be far too good for Pacquiao and it would mess things up for Arum once Pacquiao got decisively beat. The paydays would likely drop in the amount of money that’s brought in and it’s unclear whether Pacquiao would ever get back to where he is now once Mayweather takes care of him.