Floyd just impresses me more and more everytime I see him.
It is only in his last few fights that I'm beginning to see the bigger picture of his talent. I always knew he was a great boxer, but his plan against Hatton was executed to perfection. The way he just lay against the ropes, expending little to no energy while Hatton pushed forward, holding and punching (and missing) and expending so much energy of his own. Floyd measured it brilliantly and knew that Hatton would slow down considerably in the second half of the fight. Against a lightning quick and accurate fighter like Floyd, slowing down is suicide!
He looked as fresh as a daisy even in round 10, while Hatton looked ragged and worn out. I predicted a 9th round stoppage for Floyd so I wasn't far off. The fight went pretty much exactly as I imagined.
He is just so cool under pressure, that is part of the reason that he doesn't tire. When he is against the ropes and slipping/dodging/ducking punches, he doesn't tense up his muscles at all and just pot shots with clever punches to get both his opponents and the judges attention.
Hatton on the contrary was brave, gallant and pressuring like he only knows how. It kept the fight kind of competitive for the first half of the fight (though I only scored round 5 to Hatton), but from round 7 on he began to tire and that is when Floyd started to take over. Pretty much anytime Floyd wanted to be the boss, he was. He stood toe to toe with Hatton at will and punished him with blitzing combo's. The straight right was jolting Hatton's head back as I feared it would. Hatton's reflexes were slower, his punches were slower, his balance wasn't as steady and Floyd began to systematically break him down until the stoppage.
It was the perfect way to deal with a fighter like Hatton, a total masterclass in pure boxing.
Well done to both fighters though! Hatton for his bravery and courage and Floyd for the obvious.