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Mayweather Hatton - Beyond The Scorecards
MON December 10, BUSTER PARIS - 1:45 into the 10th and Hatton is back on his feet. His legs are bit unsteady, and his raging passion has been temporarily replaced by a dizzying understanding, and denial, of the moment - and it is in this moment that one thing is abundantly clear – there’s only one Ricky Hatton.
For the very first time in the entire night Mayweather steps to him, swings a left hook, misses, and Ricky hangs on. Referee Joe Cortez breaks them apart, and Floyd, fully understanding this moment, once again steps to Ricky. This time the left hook grazes Hatton’s face. The lightening immediacy of the follow up left hook punctuates the point that there’s only one Floyd Mayweather – and it connects - sending Hatton stumbling backwards towards the ropes, and setting Floyd up for the kill.
Pouncing and launching another glancing left, then another left that hits the target, a sneaky and surprisingly effective little right, and a giantly thrown, yet brushing left causes Cortez to pull Floyd off as Ricky goes timber to his right, crashes down, and Cortez waives the bout over just as the towel is set flying from Team Hatton.
Saturday – December 8th, 2007 at the MGM Grand in Las Vegas, Nevada we finally got to see “Pretty Boy” Floyd Mayweather Jr (W 39 – KO 31 and L 0) and Ricky “The Hitman” Hatton (W43 – KO 31 and L 1) face off against each other, where someone’s “0” had to go – and via a 10th round KO, it went.
The fight did not disappoint. Jump around TalkingBoxing.com and check out some of the blow by blows and the round by rounds. You’re sure to find different opinions and different perceptions on how the fight unfolded.
For scoring – the Judges had it all for Floyd going into the 10th - Judge Paul Smith had it 88-82, and Judges Dave Moretti and Burt Clements had it 89-81. I had it 86-85 for Floyd and thought it was a much closer fight.
Beyond the scorecards - the fight was beautifully ugly. The infighting was tight, cruel, violent and tricky. Both fighters truly brought out the best in each other, and you don’t get that too often, especially in a Mayweather fight. It’s usually “Pretty Boy” Floyd doing what he can do to wrack up the points before figuring out the puzzle and dominating the fight, making it look easy.
Against Hatton, Mayweather had the hardest time we’ve ever seen him have. There was nothing easy about it. He had never faced such unyielding and ferocious aggression coupled with fast hand and foot speed.
Ricky would run to Floyd and relentlessly attack from all angles, always moving, always applying pressure and brutally inserting himself into Floyd’s existence, forcing Mayweather to struggle, and work.
Something that will get overlooked is that Hatton raised his game to an unbelievable level. He gave the worlds greatest fighter fighting today the hardest, and toughest fight of his career. He made it an absolute reality that Floyd could lose this fight – and that has never been done with as much intensity and sustained possibility before.
For Floyd, this wasn’t a perfect fight from him. We’re so used to seeing Mayweather be Godlike in the ring, and against Hatton he appeared to be human after all, and he had difficulty coping with the onslaught of having Ricky Hatton invade his world like a sadistically violent virus.
In the end though, Mayweather indomitably rose to the occasion and prevailed by using his incredibly gifted mind, his awesome ring savvy, and those amazing fists to knock Ricky out, and hand the Manchester lad his first “L”.
At the end of the night, a gracious Mayweather had this to confess:
"Ricky was one of the toughest fighters I have ever faced, and he is still a champion in my eyes…"
Hatton summed up the night with his usual charm and wit:
“What a fluke that was…”
What’s next for Ricky? How about Junior Welterweight (140 lbs) supremacy.
147 pounds is too much for Hatton. He’s struggled each time above 140, it’s just not his realm. Let’s have a confidence building scrap at 140 lbs and then a match with Junior Witter already, which should be a walk in the park after tussling up with the Pound Per Pound greatest, and then how about unifying the entire 140 lbs weight class before walking off into that goodnight.
Whatever Hatton decides, all his fans will be there singing away – and it’s a truth that needs to be sung – there’s only one Ricky Hatton.
Next for “Money” Mayweather – and yes, I’m utterly annoyed and somewhat repulsed by that whole persona, but like I’ve said, Floyd is this generations Mozart, and all the other fighters, and even to some extent, us fans, are nothing but a bunch of Salieris living in his shadow – anyway – what’s next for Floyd? Well, he wants to take some time off, and says that he won’t fight in 2008 and 2009, and he also mentioned that he wants to try his hand at promoting – hey, why not?
Floyd has done and proved everything that he’s set out to do. Look at his resume, he’s fought the best, and we keep adding to the list. We say fight Baldomir, he does, brilliantly, and destroys him – and what’s our thanks to him, we give him grief for making it so easy. Against Oscar De La Hoya – we say – no way can he win, he does, and again, it’s a great victory – especially beyond the scorecards – it carries great historical significance, and we say ‘well – he didn’t entertain’. We say fight Hatton, he does, he wins, fights the hardest fight of his career, and I’m sure there will be plenty of folks out there trying to take away from this victory.
As a fighter, and beyond the scorecards, Floyd Mayweather Jr has absolutely nothing left to prove – and honestly – we don’t deserve him.
Buster Paris can be reached at: bparis@talkingboxing.com - and always enjoys receiving your thoughts, comments and questions
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