Originally Posted by
JazMerkin
Well, I thought I'd take a few days to get over the jet-lag before posting my opinions on the fight. I am surprised that the place doesn't appear to have gone anywhere near as mental as I thought it would post-fight. Was my first time going to any pro fight & was well worth the money shelled out for the ticket. Was definitely worth the $150 for a live ticket than spending £15 on PPV, especially considering how the fight panned out.
First things first, there can be NO doubting Manny's greatness now. Forget how bad Hatton was or that he was apparently weight-drained (I will say that he did not look well at all at the weigh in), the fact is Manny proved himself as at the least a Top 30 ATG, possibly Top 20. He was clearly on a different level to Hatton, and a fight with any of Cotto, Mayweather or Marquez would be well and truly fantastic.
Hatton, however, fought absolutely horribly. There were such basic mistakes, the types that you are supposed to correct when you first go to a gym. I was in the nosebleed seats & I could see his chin hanging up when he threw a punch, and the fact that he seemed to think that he could fight with his hands down made it seem like he thought that he was having a drunken fight outside a pub. This of course doesn't even begin to mention the wild swinging hooks that really did belong in a pub car park. There was a slight feeling of being cheated by all the promises of him fighting more carefully & boxing a bit. It's knowing he can do it, but almost can't be bothered with it that kind of gets on my nerves. I don't think he would have beaten Pacquiao by boxing, but he would have gone out with some more dignity than he did. I'll be honest, I think his punch resistance probably went when he hit that ringpost against Mayweather, and the fact he's been hurt & caught by Lazcano & Malignaggi should've been some indication that he would get destroyed by a guy who can hit as hard & fast as Manny can. Don't know much about what was going on behind the scenes, but all I can say is Ricky lost for 2 reasons. How he fought & how great Pacquiao is.
The undercard was good to watch Soto completely outclassing a Canadian fella, and to see Danny Jacobs step it up. Met him afterwards & he was a really cool guy, as were Soto, Freddie Roach & Big Floyd. Also got a nice wave from Manny as he left whilst about 100 of his fans were loitering around another exit 20 feet away excited about some famous Filipino actor ;D Oh the Irony.
The only negative point of the whole trip was some of the fans of both fighters. At the weigh in, the Brits were well and truly embarassing, initially with their disrespect of the Filipinos there, but then the fact that they should boo ANYONE who came on stage and had the temerity to not be Ricky Hatton. Also about 90% of them clearly had no clue about boxing, as evidenced most clearly by the widespread silence & shrugging of shoulders when Juan Manuel Marquez was introduced & singing "Jumpin Joe Calzaghe :confused:" at Bernard Hopkins. Bringing some neanderthal football fan attitude to a boxing fight kind of gets on my nerves particularly if you know nothing about the sport, and I could see I wasn't the only embarassed Brit there. The desperate attention seeking behaviour of many of the fans, particularly the four drunken knobs just in front of me who insisted on badly shadowboxing in the middle of the stairs, really made me want to apply for US citizenship then & there.
Most disappointing however was to hear racial language from a number of people there. When Amir Khan came on stage it was unbelievable hostile, and both me & my Asian girlfriend heard him referred to as a "paki cunt who should fuck off" by a small group behind us, and to hear Pacquiao to being described as "that chinky bastard". The fact pricks like this actually make it through life still amazes me. However, the Pacquiao fans at the fight were not to be outdone with a group booing Humberto Soto for "being a fuckin Mexican" & the prick next to me saying that Pacquiao would "knock that pussy whiteboy out because that's what we do homey" and for some reason expecting that I agreed with him & would wanna high-five him. Also both fans booed each other's anthems in small numbers, and to be honest after this all I wanted was to return here where at least most people know their boxing.
However, barring having to interact with these respective bell-ends of different nationalities it was an absolutely brilliant trip, and I would like to salute the true great Manny Pacquiao for putting on such a fantastic performance that I was privelidged to witness.
