By Chris Williams: Former Floyd Mayweather Jr and Manny Pacquiao victim Ricky Hatton is picking Mayweather Jr. to win the mega-fight between him and Pacquiao on May 2nd. Hatton was soundly beaten by both fighters in the past.
In fact, Pacquiao did a better job beating Hatton than Mayweather Jr. did, but of course Mayweather Jr. already softened Hatton up previously by knocking him out before Pacquiao got to him. Hatton thinks that Mayweather’s ability to adapt to any fighter will give him an edge against the 36-year-old Pacquiao.
While Hatton thinks Pacquiao will have a chance in the fight due to his speed, southpaw stance and the fact that he won’t have any pressure on him because of him being an underdog, Hatton still believes that Mayweather will have too much talent for Pacquiao to beat him.
Hatton likes Pacquiao’s fast feet and hands, and he thinks he matches up well with Mayweather in those departments. Hatton thinks Pacquiao needs to straighten his shots out by avoiding throwing a lot of looping shots, because Mayweather does a good job of blocking those types of punches.
Pacquiao rarely throws straight punches though, and even if his trainer Freddie Roach was astute enough to get Pacquiao to stop throwing looping shots, he’d likely still throw them constantly against Mayweather. Pacquiao fighting style hasn’t really changed since day one when he jointed up with Roach, so it’s hard to see Roach being able to wean Pacquiao off of throwing looping shots.
“I think Manny has all the tools in order to beat him. He’s a southpaw which makes it a little bit awkward,” Hatton said via Skysports.com. “He’s got fast feet and fast hands and is probably someone who can match Mayweather for speed. I think if he can match Mayweather for speed and get in and out like he did against Oscar De La Hoya – straight punches rather than hooks, which Manny is very good at – I think he’s got a great chance.”
If you watch the Pacquiao-De La Hoya fight, you’ll notice that De La Hoya fought like he had giant stilts taped to each leg, causing him not to move laterally away from Pacquiao when he was on the attack. De La Hoya, who was never a good mover to begin with during his career, looked weight drained and shot for that fight against Pacquiao.
By standing perfectly still, De La Hoya was the perfect opponent for Pacquiao to use his in and out attacks against all night long until the fight was eventually halted after the 8th round. Mayweather will be using movement, and he’s not going to just stand there like he’s lost his senses completely.
Mayweather will either be coming forward to walk Pacquiao down or he’ll be moving laterally to force Pacquiao to chase him. While Pacquiao in chasing him, Mayweather will be nailing Pacquiao again and again with pinpoint shots.
“But my gut feeling is that Mayweather will adapt his style like he always does and probably beat Manny on points,” Hatton said.
In speaking about Mayweather being mostly silent during the build up to this fight, Hatton said “Maybe’s he’s nervous about the fight because there’s so much on the line but he’s not doing much talking.” But my gut feeling is that Mayweather will adapt his style like he always does and probably beat Manny on points. Floyd has got an unbeaten record. He’s going to want to keep it so the pressure is all on Floyd and Manny will like that.”
Mayweather isn’t nervous. I think he’s evolved from his trash talking days. He didn’t do any real trash talking for his fights against Robert Guerrero, Miguel Cotto, and Marcos Maidana. I’m not sure where Hatton has been hiding all this time, but he’d been keeping score he’d have noticed that Mayweather stopped trash talking after his fight against Victor Ortiz in 2011. Mayweather doesn’t need to trash talk, and he doesn’t need to hype his fight. Pacquiao’s trainer Freddie Roach is doing all the trash talking for all of them, and it’s more than enough. Every once in a while, Pacquiao and his promoter Bob Arum take a couple of shots at Mayweather in the media, and that’s more than enough.
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