Former two-weight world champion Ricky Hatton is refusing to write-off old rival Manny Pacquiao 62-7-2 (39) when he takes on WBC and IBF welterweight champion Errol ‘The Truth’ Spence Jr 27-0 (21) in Las Vegas, Nevada on August 21.
The evergreen Pacquiao, 42, turned professional in 1995 and won his first world championship at flyweight three years later. He has since scaled the weight classes, claiming top honours across eight different divisions.
The only boxers to defeat the Filipino superstar in the past 15 years are Floyd Mayweather Jr, Juan Manuel Marquez, Timothy Bradley and Jeff Horn.
In his last outing two years ago Pacquiao dethroned previously undefeated American Keith ‘One Time’ Thurman 29-1 (22) by split decision to become the WBA 147-pound champion.
Texan Spence, 31, will present a whole new challenge for Pacquiao, not least because the fight pits two southpaws against each other. The last lefty that Pacquiao faced was David Diaz 13 years ago. He dominated the fight to win by ninth-round knockout.
Hatton, who retired after being stopped by Pacquiao in two rounds in 2009 before an ill-fated one fight comeback that he lost to Vyacheslav Senchenko three years later, rates Pacquiao as a once in a lifetime boxer.
“Manny is absolutely incredible,” Hatton wrote in his column for Metro. “Why he wants to be fighting on at 42 against Errol Spence Jr with everything he has achieved I’ll never know! When I met Manny Pacquaio, he seemed to be a very sensible person, very educated. He’s a very clever person.
“Traditionally boxers don’t know when to call it a day. They don’t know when to pick the right time to hang their gloves up but you would like to think he is clever enough to do that and the fact that he is accepting this fight only means he must feel he is still capable of mixing it up at that level.
“The one thing is, he is absolutely going to go down as one of the greatest of all time but we don’t want to see him get hurt. But you have got to put faith in him and the team behind him and assume they are clever enough to know what they are doing.
“Compared to Keith Thurman who Pacquiao beat in 2019, Spence is a little bit sharper, a little bit crisper in what he does. You would think that the reflexes might be starting to go a bit on Manny Pacquiao. But every now and again you get the odd freak. Bernard Hopkins went onto become a world champion at 48!
“We can’t point out Manny Pacquiao’s age and say he can’t do it. We always worry about these things happening because no one likes to see fighters who we have so much admiration for go in there and get hurt.
“But if you are still performing at the highest level why not? But he will certainly have to raise his game again against Spence, he is a hell of a fighter.”
