By Patrick Kehoe
Can Ricky Hatton really beat Floyd Mayweather Jr., the Roger Federer, the Tiger Woods of professional boxing? The preening prince from Michigan may not be as commercially palatable or short listed for mass media consumption like the reigning monarchs of tennis and golf, and yet, the primary descriptor used to sum up his over all abilities is the same as those two: Genius. How does Ricky Hatton, a fighter, a champion, even if an undefeated one, beat the embodiment of fistic genius in his time, the heir to Roy Jones and Sugar Ray Leonard? Ignore reality, get down to basics and make a brawl out of it are three of the normal clichés that usually spew forth at this juncture of speculative inquiry.
Still, there are certain credence’s that Hatton will simply have to ignore. He will have to take his own superiority on good faith and trust in his own will as an instrument of fate. In championship boxing, especially when champion is pitted against champion, you have to believe beyond simple rationality and sometimes beyond probability. The arguments arrayed against you can be formidable and, on paper, compelling. Taking an analytical approach to this fight will not do Hatton or his fans much good. As a statistical match-up there is precious little to indicate that the Manchester Masher has the specific tools for victory; so don’t look for favourable measurements of height or reach nor probe too deeply to make a comparison of quality of opposition for proof positive certainty.
At least Hatton can still rightfully claim to be in his twenties, at 29, making him 4 months younger than the 30 year-old Mayweather. Of course, any and all semantic advantages may be ceased upon, if only for debating points. Consider the critical factor of speed and power and one has to acknowledge that speed becomes power when one is honest in assessing Mayweather and his unique ability to transition his probing jab based boxing in an eye blink into attack mode. Nevertheless, Team Hatton has yet to accept that Mayweather can be the all out puncher in this fight. They note that even with the clear advantage of speed injected boxing De La Hoya and Baldomir and Judah all heard the bell ending the final scheduled round against Mayweather. We note here that Mayweather has suffered from hand damage since he was an amateur. And the above list of Mayweather victims were notably ring worn and past their confident best. One doesn’t even have to mention they were past their technical best.
Jose Luis Castillo did manage to provide future Mayweather challengers with a blueprint to beating “Pretty Boy” during their first WBC lightweight championship clash. Hatton’s trainer Billy Graham hasn’t over looked that little detail. Perhaps, Castillo failed to test Mayweather to the limit of pressurizing physicality?
For all of his pre-fight promotional pomposity Floyd Mayweather, spouting off on the stump in Los Angeles and Manchester, didn’t seem to net anything like a psychological advantage over Hatton. In fact, it was Hatton who showed his quick wittedness by slyly countering Mayweather’s taunting insistences of Hatton being sparring partner material – yes, the same invective he used on Arturo Gatti – with flat out respect spiced up with allusions to Mayweather as being the effeminate side of this paring of opposites. So, even in that politically incorrect insinuation, Hatton kept to the mantra of his boyhood hero Roberto Duran, who more explicitly deemed his genius foe, Ray Leonard, as the ‘girl’ of their first mega-showdown in Montreal, 1980. Hatton, it was apparent from the beginning of the fight’s promotional outings, wanted to keep things pedestrian and professional. With Mayweather in full dismissive bluster that was never going to happen.
Ricky Hatton, it must be said, keeps his side of things up, come what may. And that instinct to give as good as he takes suggests something of what Hatton may bring to the fight itself, physically challenged as he may be, precisely because it’s bread in the bone, essential to his very nature. There’s little doubt that Hatton’s proven that, like Mayweather, he loves a challenge and having the chance to make liars out of people who are convinced he’s not up to the job, of making a mockery out of consensus, and Las Vegas odds makers.
Hatton, the main man at junior welterweight, destroyer of Kostya Tszyu, has yet to prove himself a welterweight of exceptional merit. Neutrals can only hope that he’s worked himself into competitive condition at or near 147, because his first venture at full welter against Luis Collazo was, though a last minute experiment, an eminently forgettable effort in ‘moving up.’ Many title holders prove themselves to be near greats, the forgotten fearless men who promised to kill a king and take the ultimate crown only to fall off the earth.
Where should daring lead but to danger’s lair? To hear Hatton’s trainer Billy Graham tell it, Hatton’s entire career trajectory has been to box Floyd Mayweather, in Las Vegas, for millions of dollars and a chance to prove he’s a blue chip legend. For people like Graham, inevitability is really just strident opportunity turned to form a circle.
Ricky Hatton has said for years that he’s the first one to admit his weaknesses – mainly dietary neglect, i.e. a mother’s cooking – and to come clean on those things that tend to run counter to what we expect makes for the disciplined life of a world class athlete. Parallel to his bar leaping, heavy-bag splitting workout dynamism – once in the gym with a contract inked and an opponent singled out – Hatton does indulge in life.
Ricky Hatton lives in between fights and then drives himself near the breaking point, thrilled by the excruciating work load required to melt himself back down to once again become Ricky Hatton, world boxing champion. The man loves a rollicking good time hoisting a few frothing jars with the lads down at the pub, cheering for his beloved Manchester City football club. But he’s also a blue collar guy who knows that everything he’s secured in life has come as a direct result of hard work. There is a time to play and a time to work. When necessary, the champion shuts out his beloved family and most of his pals and gets back into manic mode, pain inducing trials tailored over the years to rip Hatton back down to his fighting essence. Yes, he really does fit the general mould of a Roberto Duran.
To go all out during training means a short shelf life at the pinnacle of boxing, note Joe Frazier, so we are seeing the peek and closure of Ricky Hatton’s absolute best right before us, now, as late fall nears winter 2007. Team Hatton do not believe that in essence Mayweather can win a duel of warring champions, one which comes down to elemental guts and brandishing of will which is all the way past technical demonstrations of pure boxing. Can Hatton’s power surging make that fight happen?
The early rounds may well showcase Mayweather in full flow, Hatton at times falling for an ego driven head hunting expedition – trainer Graham counselling him back to his senses – going for a quick, sensational kill. But he will go to the champion’s body, with ferocity, just as Mayweather will be storming at him with knifing jabs and surgical strikes of his right hand. The champion will himself be looking for a knockout, caution tempering him, likely getting the better of him.
As the pattern of the fight ebbs back and forth between disengaged boxing and occasional inside exchanges, the extent to which Hatton sinks home his left hook to the champion’s body may well tell the ultimate tale of the fight, as it comes down the championship stretch run. Short of Hatton cutting or Mayweather’s hand fracturing, the contest will have moments where Ricky Hatton’s brutish body hitting will turn to the Mayweather head, and then, we will know the final framing of this contest of undefeated champions.
Take away Mayweather’s measuring of distances and he’s forced into a protracted struggle and all boxing fans know that is exactly where resistance melts away, if it is meant to. Can the fight not go there?
Jose Luis Castillo, son of a pro fighter and Julio Cesar Chavez sparring partner, we said took a brutal approach against Mayweather the first time around, in 2002. In the later rounds, Hatton will hope to do the same, with even more fervour. Don’t look at the tale of the tape for what defines winning between great, undefeated fighters. Look to the intangibles, that committed sense of knowing takes mastery of lived events, which finds ways to sheer away those polished routines of geniuses like Mayweather, all of their authoritatively elegant boxing reduced to survival. At least that is what Team Hatton believes, what they believe has been ordained.
Everyone in boxing knows that Floyd Mayweather is a boxer who can battle and Ricky Hatton’s a battler who can box. Just as everyone understands that does not make them equal. True, vive la difference!
The larger question remains: who will be fighting their fight during the decisive moments when fatigue and function begin to fail... the winner?
Sounds just like a cliché.
Patrick Kehoe may be reached at pkehoe@telus.net