LAS VEGAS?Floyd Mayweather, Sr. is never at a lost for words. Ricky Hatton?s loquacious trainer is outspoken and even poetic.
But when asked to reply to the many boxing pundits that predict a Manny Pacquiao victory against his boxing prodigy, Hatton, he just dismissed it.
“We can show it better than we can tell it,” said Mayweather Sr. to the Asian Journal. “Those are foolish people and foolish thoughts.”
With three weeks remaining in one of the biggest boxing events of the year, Hatton and Mayweather, Sr. opened the doors to their training camp at the IBA gym to media from all around the world on Thursday, April 16.
The Pride of Manchester Hatton (45-1 32 KO?s) will face the Pride of the Philippines Pacquiao (48-3-2 36 KO?s) in an East versus West battle for Hatton?s 140-pound Ring Magazine title on May 2 at the MGM Grand in Las Vegas.
Pacquiao is coming off one of the most stellar performances in boxing when he defeated a bigger Oscar De La Hoya last December. The impressive performance is one of the reasons why many boxing experts consider Pacquiao the best pound-4-pound boxer in the world.
Hatton is also coming off one of his better performances. The British fighter stopped New Yorker Paulie Malignaggi by technical knockout in the 11th round of their match last November.
Both men have a lot to prove on May 2. A win for Pacquiao would lift him to greater heights as the man who may replace De La Hoya as boxings main attraction.
For Hatton, the match against Pacquiao is huge. This is the second time that Hatton will vie for the pound-4-pound king title. He lost his first attempt at it, when now retired Floyd Mayweather Jr knocked him out. This time with Pacquiao holding the mythical title in the ring, Hatton doesn?t want to let this opportunity slip by.
“This fight can?t get any bigger,” said Hatton whose dream is to be considered the pound-4-pound champion. “As a fighter you can?t do anymore than beat the No. 1 pound for pound fighter in the world. Your goal obviously is to win the world title but to be the guardian of the best of all the world champions in all the weight division like Manny Pacquiao is? you can?t get any higher than that.”
Many boxing pundits are expecting the quicker and elusive Pacquiao to defeat Hatton.
But Hatton sees a lot of similarities between Pacquiao and Malignaggi, who was also considered by many experts as faster than Hatton.
“You know, they all said that Paulie was going to out jab me and run in circles around me,” said Hatton. “But I proved that night. I think I out jabbed him and beat him to the punch.”
Mayweather Sr. said that he already knows what to expect from Pacquiao. He said that Hatton is going to chase him down all night long.
“Ricky is going to stop Manny,” said Mayweather Sr. “Once Manny feels Ricky?s strength and power he?s going to run, run, run, and run. He?s [Manny is] going to get cornered and can?t run no more.”
“That?s what we?ll be doing,” he added. “We?re getting ready to mainly attack the body and back him up in the corner and leave him there. Pacquioa can?t fight fighting backwards. All he does is throw arm punches so I think we can beat up that body and then Manny [will] have a whole diff outlook on who Ricky is.”
Hatton said that his job is to execute the strategy “intelligently.” “Not like what I was doing a couple years ago – just steam in there and body punching and roll over my opponents,” said Hatton. “I have to be more tactically better.”
Mayweather Sr. didn?t want to offer any predictions on the outcome of the fight. He feels that his fighter is going to win against Pacquiao. He said that from this point on, talking about Hatton or Pacquiao?s strategy is cheap.
“You can talk with your mouth but let?s see if they can do it right there in front of the crowd,” he said. (Joseph Pimentel)
