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The first of five press conferences to build hype for the December 8, 2007 showdown between Pound for Pound King Floyd Mayweather Jr, 38-0 (24), and the universally recognized Junior Welterweight Champion, Ricky “The Hitman” Hatton, 43-0 (31), was held on Monday at the Universal City Walk in Los Angeles.
It is a tour not unlike that of the Mayweather-De la Hoya tour earlier this year, and will span five cities including, New York City, Manchester and London, England, and Floyd’s hometown of Grand Rapids, Michigan. It is a fight that is being billed as simply one word, “Undefeated.”
The crowed was somewhat surprisingly pro Ricky Hatton and many of those in attendance were waving the British flag, more proof of the drawing power of England’s most popular athlete.
Before either fighter was introduced to the public, Hatton was quick to get in the first shots. In the intro video, Hatton was seen taking dancing lessons, an obvious shot at Mayweather’s spot on the television show, “Dancing with the Stars.”
In the video, Hatton enlists the help of an “expert” dance coach to get him ready for his upcoming bout. “What about going backwards? That’s all that my opponent Floyd does, he moves backwards.”
When Ricky entered, he was wearing a gold crown but beyond that, you would be hard pressed to find anything of showmanship from him.
That is one of the reasons that Ricky feels he has such a large fan base and when asked, he said, “Because I am a man of the people. I don’t do things like that,” referring to the antics that Floyd Mayweather tends to pull at these press events.
Floyd, on the other hand, is always ready to put on a show, and that is exactly what he did. His new promotional company, Mayweather Promotions, is co-promoting the fight along with Golden Boy. Thus the antics and bad guy role that Floyd has decided to play in this fight in order to sell tickets, which it seems was not hard to do.
Richard Shaeffer, CEO of Golden Boy Promotions, was proud to announce that the tickets for the fight had already sold out, only a half an hour after they went on sale. They did announce that they are going to be offering around 50,000 closed circuit seats for the event, much like they did for the De la Hoya fight against Mayweather.
Floyd’s antics tried to draw the attention towards himself, including giving himself new nickname when he called himself, over and over, Floyd “Money” Mayweather. Or his stealing of the crown that Ricky brought with him into the ring. To which Ricky thanked him, “I think that it looks better on you. I looked like the Burger King.” But nothing that Floyd did could push past the fact that the fight doesn’t need this. It is going to sell on Hatton’s name alone.
After the press conference, I had the opportunity to ask Hatton if he felt that Mayweather’s reality show stint while training for the fight was a slap in the face. But Ricky said, “There is nothing that he loves more than boxing. He will be ready.”
Obviously,Hatton himself will not take Mayweather lightly.
Hatton Mayweather fight tickets are still available at RazorGator.com See our tickets guide for more information to get you in.
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