After Ricky Hatton man-handled Jose Luis Castillo on June 23rd, the boxing world immediately turned its attention to a potential Hatton vs. Floyd Mayweather Jr. fight. The reason is simple. With the exception of Manny Pacquiao, the boxing world doesn’t have many stars outside of Hatton and Mayweather Jr. A sport that at one time had four of the greatest fighters of all time challenging each other in the ring (Thomas Hearns, Marvin Hagler, Ray Leonard and Roberto Duran) has suffered perhaps its greatest lack of star power in its history.
Boxing’s great hope, that a Floyd Mayweather Jr. vs. Oscar De La Hoya fight would bring it back to the top of the fighting world, proved to be a disappointment. De La Hoya was just too slow to challenge Mayweather Jr. The most hyped fight in years was low on both drama and action and if anything it may have hurt boxing more than helped it.
A Hatton vs. Mayweather Jr. match would be very different. The age old axiom in boxing is that “styles make fights”. If that’s the case, then it is obvious that Mayweather Jr.’s assertion that Ricky Hatton is “overrated” and that Hatton has “no chance” against him, might be somewhat misplaced.
Hatton, as anybody who knows anything about boxing will tell you, does almost everything right. He has, perhaps, the best defense in boxing because of the way in which he melds his defense and offense together.
Hatton’s goal is to frustrate his opponents by consistently peppering them with smart, hard punches, and holding them before they can get their punches off. His speed only adds to the amount of punches he throws at his opponents. This raises the frustration factor and causes his opponents to eventually make a mistake.
Hatton demonstrated this style perfectly in his last fight by knocking out Castillo with a terrifically placed shot to Castillo’s liver. The blow was delivered so efficiently because of Hatton’s earlier work to Castillo’s head. Castillo chose to protect his head and Hatton saw an opening between Castillo’s elbow and hip.
Mayweather Jr., of course, will contend that he has the speed to counteract anything Hatton tries against him. He might be right. As fast as Hatton is, Mayweather Jr. is faster and no amount of retirement time on Mayweather Jr.’s part will probably change that. Mayweather Jr. is also a terrific defender. His anticipation, the way he reads what his opponent is planning to do, is absolutely fantastic. Mayweather Jr. can fight in close or far away and that fact that he does both equally brilliant would prove difficult for Hatton to handle.
However, one thing that Hatton has is smarts and toughness. He won’t stand there and let Mayweather Jr. dance around and jab him until the 12th round. When it comes to fight time, how will Mayweather Jr. react if Hatton puts him on the canvas? Will Mayweather Jr. rise and fight Hatton?
For the true boxing fan, the answers to these questions aren’t nearly as important as the chance to ask the questions. Let’s hope that both Mayweather Jr.’s and Ricky Hatton’s managers and promoters get together and sign a contract for this fight.
With Mixed Martial Arts suddenly becoming popular all over the country, a Hatton vs. Mayweather Jr. match might be boxing’s last hope to stay relevant.
