Hatton vs. Mayweather?!?!

[fozzy40]

http://sports.espn.go.com/sports/boxing/news/story?id=2918039

What do you guys think?

[wado_kai]

well its definately on now, i hope mayweather stands and fights and doesn't back off! if he does this will be good...

[Britt]

That's one short retirement.

[Uke]

I doubt Mayweather will be backing off. If he stood toe to toe with DLH in the middle of the ring and outpointed him there, he'll be able to handle Hatton.

Hatton uses a style that is designed to give Mayweather problems. If you saw Mayweather fight Jesus Chavez, Chavez was bull rushing a lot like Hatton does. He, like Hatton, likes to smother his opponent and make the fight as if it were in a phone booth. Mayweather's seen and dealt with that tactic before.

Floyd's also dealt with harder punchers like DLH. Still, the stylistic differences will make for a great fight. Floyd has much of the time been the weaker puncher in his matches. So I expect to see much of his slipping, rolling and stuffing on the inside when Hatton is looking for targets to hit.

Hatton is a pitbull though. A great champion with a blend of youth, tenacity and wicked body attacks. He's very formidable. I didn't like his match against Castillio and refuse to gauge him by that performance. He's better than what we saw in that charade that resembled bad acting. His shining moment came against another P4P great in Kostya Tszyu. That was the real Hatton.

The only difficulty I see for Hatton is Mayweather's ability to be difficult to hit and the fact that Mayweather has allowed his body to grow in order to compete at jr middleweight. He's naturally going to be stronger than the Mayweather they anticipated fighting when he was coming up in weight at 140lbs.

This should be exciting and I wouldn't be surprised to see Mayweather touch the canvas. He's done it before in his match against Zab Judah, but it was waved off. Hatton is just tenacious enough to catch him with something to the body that could hurt him. I still see Mayweather being able to finesse him into frustration despite a knockdown though. One thing about Floyd is that he knows how to keep his composure.

Hatton better be careful though. He's not much faster than Gatti and if Floyd manages to close one of Hatton's eyes, expect to see the same 5 and 6 punch combinations.

Good luck to both though. I love watching both men fight.

[Uke]

Well its clear that Mayweather is taking Hatton lightly. He's signed up to do "Dancing With The Stars" during training camp for the Hatton fight. What an insult. I guess no worse than Roy Jones playing a semi-pro basketball game before a fight.

I wonder if it'll have an effect on Mayweather's performance. Hmm ... I know some people here would love it to ... but I don't think he would take the risk if he wasn't confident that he could handle it.

Still, its a slap in the face. While Hatton is running and sparring Floyd will be learning to tango. If Hatton ever had an edge or a chance this would be it.

I tell ya .... you gotta love this guy.

[Ghost]

You have to think though, IF hatton wins it, and mayweather has done all that dancing, everyone will blame the dancing and not let hatton have the clear win in peoples minds. they will always say, yeah but he wasnt training the same as he usually does for it, plus its a high profile excuse where he clearly cant be at training. not a, "oh yeah i was doing something else"

I would therefore guess mayweather isnt that confident and is looking for a scapegoat in case of a loss.
might be completely wrong of course

[Piston]

I don't really see it as an excuse Ghost, if Mayweather is going to be that arrogant, that's just Mayweather and that's who Hatton will be fighting, no sort of "lesser" form of Mayweather, discipline and a good mind-set are just as much of an important piece of a good fighter as technique and conditioning. Personally I want to see Hatton beat Mayweather's smug face back into retirement, could be because I'm British (I'm Welsh but I like the mancs), but mostly because I think smugness and arrogance are not very becoming of a quality fighter.

[Ghost]

I don't really see it as an excuse Ghost, if Mayweather is going to be that arrogant, that's just Mayweather and that's who Hatton will be fighting, no sort of "lesser" form of Mayweather, discipline and a good mind-set are just as much of an important piece of a good fighter as technique and conditioning. Personally I want to see Hatton beat Mayweather's smug face back into retirement, could be because I'm British (I'm Welsh but I like the mancs), but mostly because I think smugness and arrogance are not very becoming of a quality fighter.

i agree with most of what you say, im a brit too and i badly want hatton to win. i just think if mayweather loses they pull the "yeah but i was tired from the dancing so i wasnt on form that night" card.

[Uke]

but mostly because I think smugness and arrogance are not very becoming of a quality fighter.

How long have you been watching boxing for? Some of the very best were smug and arrogant. Mostly because they couldn't get the credit that they deserved from the rest of the world. So, they became their own biggest fan.

[Piston]

Yeah I kinda grasped that.....I was speaking about a "fighter" in a more general sense not just focussing on the ethical cesspool that is proffessional boxing, that would be an exercise in futility. Understand that I only say that last comment in regards to big league boxing, I'm sure there are plenty of decent honourable boxers/boxing managers out there, but certainly not on an international level.

[Uke]

I was speaking about a "fighter" in a more general sense not just focussing on the ethical cesspool that is proffessional boxing, that would be an exercise in futility. .

How true was that!

I didn't mean to seem abrasive, Piston. I was just saying that most of the best were arrogant because they didn't get the credit that they truly deserved.

Case in point: Larry Holmes

One of the best ever, but they treated him like an opponent instead of the World Champion.

For many years many of the best boxers didn't get the credit for their skill or achievements unless they got into slugfests where they suffered brain damage, detached retinas and broken jaws, noses and orbital bones.

I love both Hatton and Mayweather as boxers. They both do a lot to give boxing fans great fights.

On skill its definitely Mayweather.
On toughness and tenacity its definitely Hatton.

No one's ever seen Mayweather in a rough match like Hatton has been in.

[Piston]

A little off-topic but I saw this video and thought of this little bit on honour and respect I've just talked about http://youtube.com/watch?v=ev-A0X3z8-w.

Andy Hug vs. Mirko Crocup, look at the respect they have for each other, that friendly glove tap in the middle of the fight, and then giving it their all that's what I'm talking about!

[A-Zo]

Hatton is a tough fighter. I wouldn't be surprised if he took out Mayweather. They are definitely on different ends of the spectrum when it comes to personality. We will see what happens when they are in the ring together. Personally, I think Hatton is going to take him down.

[sly fox]

i hope hatton wins as well, it should be a great fight though

[da_mill]

I really really really wanna put a bet on Ricky but I'm not a betting man and i don't have money to lose!!! Maybe I will. who knows. I would dearly love to see him do it though...

Obv Mayweather may be too fast and his hands might just be too much, which would give him a points win. Still, as people have said before Mayweather hasn't had to deal with someone like Hatton - fair enough the Judah fight was quite rough and brusing, but I don't think Judah is a patch on Hatton. And Hatton hits like a brick shithouse, I think if he can catch mayweather with some good shots it'll slow him down a bit and he might be able to do some inside work. But yea as that guy from HBO kept saying in the bloody Calzaghe fight, when fast hands are fighting a bigger puncher, usually fast hands wins. Has mayweather ever really r eally been tested?! Because you know Ricky will dig deep and give it everything, and if Mayweather isn't mentally ready for a total war that also may cause him problems. Still tho, you don't become the best of the best for years without being pretty damn good lol...