Ricky Hatton was among the many in attendance at the MGM Grand in Las Vegas who was shocked with the way Manny Pacquiao easily took the sting out of Oscar De La Hoya.
The Guardian, the widely-read British newspaper, sent somebody to cover the fight and the first thing that apparently came out of Hatton?s mouth was a word customarily given to either a conqueror or a member of a royal family.
“Magnificent,” Hatton said as quoted by Guardian staffer Lawrence Donegan after Pacquiao?s spectacular eighth-round stoppage of the Golden Boy.
It wasn?t clear if it was a description of Pacquiao or the way the fighter performed but either way, it was a show of utmost respect and admiration.
Negotiations are apparently coming to an end for Pacquiao and Hatton to square off on May 2 either at the MGM Grand or Thomas and Mack Center, also in Las Vegas, and Donegan wrote that Hatton?s impending battle with the Filipino pound-for-pound king “is both lucrative and daunting.”
Donegan described Pacquiao, in his impressive handling of De La Hoya, as “utterly unstoppable,” implying that Hatton better be more than ready should the Pacquiao fight become a reality.
“The Englishman was among the 17,000 spectators (15,001 according to the promoters) who witnessed Manny Pacquiao demolish Oscar De La Hoya, sending the golden boy of American boxing into probable retirement, and like everyone else who walked from the MGM?s Grand Garden Arena into the Las Vegas night, he bore the startled look of a man who could hardly believe what he had just seen,” wrote Donegan.
“As assessments go, this was both succinct and brutal. Hatton and his supporters will be hoping the Englishman brings the same attributes to bear when he steps into the ring to measure himself against the magnificent Manny Pacquiao,” Donegan wrote.
