The trash-talk exchange between Floyd Mayweather Sr. and Freddie Roach is little bit like listening to Bill O’Reilly and David Letterman. It’s a scream. It’s also all for show, which makes it a diversion — a feint — before Ricky Hatton and Manny Pacquiao exchange the real blows on May 2 at Las Vegas’ MGM Grand.
For now, impact is hard to measure, although pay-per-view sales figure to be the only yardstick. Word-for-word, the entertaining, forthright Hatton could challenge Bernard Hopkins. Hatton doesn’t need anybody speaking for him, although it was a foregone conclusion that Mayweather would and did, ad nauseam, Wednesday in a trainers’ conference call including Roach and missing only Don Rickles.
The day before the latest show in the Mayweather-Roach cheap-shot fest, Hatton spoke for himself in a conference call that in part was noteworthy because it did not include Pacquiao, a Filipino who doesn’t speak either the King’s or Mayweather’s English and is more about pound-for-pound than word-for-word anyway.
At first glance, Hatton-Mayweather appeared to be an unlikely match, an Odd Couple. But there was a genuine sense Tuesday from Hatton that the British junior welterweight has rediscovered some of the joy that might have been lost in his struggle to beat Luis Collazo at 147 pounds in 2006 and then in a loss to Mayweather’s estranged son, Floyd Jr. At least, there’s no trouble making weight.
“Listen to Floyd and I lose two pounds flipping laughing,” Hatton said from his training camp in Las Vegas.
The loss (Hatton’s lone defeat) to the junior Mayweather, a messy split with longtime trainer Billy Graham and reports of a return to a Fatton lifestyle full of pints and pies planted plenty of doubt about whether he would ever be back as a major player in the pound-for-pound debate. There were predictions — including one from this corner — that put Hatton into a steep decline with a loss to Paulie Malignaggi. Wrong again.
Hatton says he displayed newfound skill and speed in an 11th-round TKO of Malignaggi. Maybe, although it’s almost as hard to judge his performance against Malignaggi as it is to get a true evaluation of Pacquiao’s stunner over Oscar De La Hoya, who was either weakened by dehydration, or time, or both. More on that next week.
But the Malignaggi fight is significant because it represents a test drive. It was the first for Hatton with Mayweather as his trainer. Two guys from different cultures and with very different accents got to know each other during a seven-week training camp.
“To tell you the truth, I couldn’t understand a flipping word Floyd was saying during those seven weeks,” said Hatton, who now seems to understand a lot more than most people.
Part of that understanding, perhaps, is learning that there is a method to the Mayweather Madness. All of the talk keeps his fighters loose and not distracted by a whirlwind of media, fans and frenzy. The chaos is inevitable before a big fight regardless of the fighters or their corners. It is going to happen no matter what. Mayweather controls much of it with outrageous quips and claims that turn him into a target for the public or media or rivals. It helps that he enjoys it, which is something he confirmed Wednesday by saying he was just having some fun.
But Mayweather’s fun is fundamental in psychology that allows Hatton to concentrate energies on the dangerous target in front of him.
“It’s been a long time since I’ve enjoyed my training so much,” Hatton said.
No personality is alike, and the gregarious Hatton is very different than the more controlled De La Hoya. Hatton is the kind of a guy you’d expect to meet at last call. De La Hoya is the kind of suit you’d expect to meet in a board room. But Mayweather’s impact on De La Hoya is worth remembering when considering Hatton’s chances against the favored Pacquiao.
