I just realised that I posted this somewhere else, and it should really have gone on this thread. :P Anyway, here are my thoughts before and after the fight ... for what they are worth!!



Quote from: X on 05-12-2007, 08:45:07
I've really enjoyed watching Hatton from the beginning of his career and I think he is a very very good fighter indeed. In Brit terms, the best pressure fighter we've produced since Barry McGuigan and a true world-class operator. He has a decent media image, is exciting, good chin and brave as they come.

On the downside, I have always been really concerned at his conditioning between fights - to me, that is unprofessional and it will undoubtedly catch up with him in the ring one day. As a pressure fighter he also takes more punches that a stand-off boxer would and those two things (allied with his susceptibility to cuts) will mean he has a shorter career than say, Chris Eubank or Joe Calzaghe .... so we should enjoy it while we can.

I also just can't forget how he struggled with Collazzo and am aware that he has seldom defended a title (which to me is harder than winning one). Someone like Calzaghe has a much better legacy, but doesn't get the credit because he is less media friendly and because he generally stayed in the UK - though he has now cleaned out the division and unified it, so I hope that logical people don't hold that against him in years to come.

I can't help thinking that PBF is a phenomenon, the best things I've seen since Ray Leonard. Ray always had a Plan B, though, and I will be interested to see what Floys does if he gets dragged into the trenches.

I don't think that Ricky will be able to catch Floyd to blast him out early, I think Hatton will win the early rounds on aggression and volume but he will most likely be unable to pin Mayweather down long enough to land the two or three shots he will need to stop him. I see Floys coming more into the fight after the third and beginning to time hatton coming in - it's at this point that I think the extra weight will take it's toll and, as Floys is a slashing type of puncher, I do fear that he will cut Ricky up and force a technical stoppage around the 8th or 9th. If the ref is not too squeamish, Ricky might make it to a points loss.

Having said that, if Hatton actually pulls this off, I think it will be the best win by a British boxer since Curry Honeyghan (and Robinson-Turpin before that)


Well, for once, I wasn't too far wrong !!

I thought Mayweather was absolutely fantastic last night. He was cool as a cucumber, he can clearly stand up for himself, foul and spoil with the best of them. He managed to con the referee (who I thought was poor and over-fussy, but not so it had any massive bearing on the actual outcome of the fight). Mayweather's speed and accuracy - his timing on the successful lead right he used was phenomenal, and the left hook that started the end was such a peach that I don't think Hatton even saw it coming - he then bashed into the ring post head first which didn't help).

To me, the sign of a great athlete is 'grace under pressure' ...... hats off to Floyd, I thought he was brilliant.

Hatton, IMO, was much to tense and hyped at the beginning. He was ragged and showed little head movement coming in (sorry, but it was UNeducated pressure he was deploying) When he found that Floyd was not running away, yet he still couldn't hit him cleanly, I think he lost the plot a bit and became desperate. I thought that the game was up when he weighed in 2 pounds under the limit actually.

As usual, I thought Hatton's post fight interview was a gem. He hadn't lost his sense of humour and was obviously so gutted (but because he thought he'd let people down) No excuses from him, despite Sky trying to get him to blame the referee. An honest and decent guy, and there is no shame in losing by moving up a weight to fight the greatest fighter since Ray Leonard.