Does Manny stop Shane?

[generalbulldog]

There were even those rumours of Hatton getting busted up in training. What did I do? I ignored it. The enemy was bombing away over the bunker and there was Hitler saying "we shall resist and beat them yet". I put my head in the sand and I deserve to be called out on that fight. One can still revise ones opinion though, just as Blair might admit that he was wrong about WMD, I can say that I was wrong about that fight. I was wrong, hands up. But this is boxing, unless you back the favourite everytime, then you are going to fuck up in your predictions sometimes. It's a sport, man against man, it isn't a place where logic is always the deciding factor. You support a guy, you must get behind him. Though I don't do it anymore. That fight changed me.

Everyone fucks up their predictions. But give credit where it's due that's what I'm saying. Stop going with excuses. Now it's because Hatton had a bad training camp and was getting busted up that's why he lost? Hatton on his best night would still lose to Pac on his best. Why? Because the talent gap was enormous. Hatton may have lasted 2 or 3 more rounds, but he would never beat Pac. He just doesn't have it, whether it's handspeed, footspeed, chin, boxing ability, compared to Pac.

Now it's very easy to say that with hindsight too. I bet you weren't so sure of that at the time though, you probably hedged your views. Nobody expected what we saw that night. Nobody thought Hatton would get blown away that easily. It was a shocker, even Manny had no idea.

I actually thought Pac would get him late rounds on cuts because Hatton bruises and cuts easily. It's been like that in his career. I didn't think it would be a blowout in the early rounds.

Now are you saying that the best Hatton would beat the best version of Pac?

He would likely have done better, much better. The Hatton that walked through Kostya was more resistant and the Hatton prior to that was more skilled. Those things would likely have made it a tougher fight for Manny.

Hatton probably (see the hedging) wouldn't have won, but it's only now that we have all seen Pac settle into the weights that we realise that he can fight at the weights. He was an unknown quantity at 140. None of us knew if he had the chin or if he would carry the power. In that sense our views of Manny have been revising too. It is a perfectly natural thing to do.

Of course Hatton would have done better. He may even win too if he had Dave Parris reffing that fight like when he fought Kostya.