"From Pillar to Post" - Hatton Inspired, But is Mayweather Divine?
By Ryan Songalia
Photo © Ed Mulholland/FightWireImages.com
Floyd Mayweather Jr. is cocky. That goes without saying. Never once prior to a professional prizefight has the utterance, "He's a great fighter, may the best man win" spewed from his oft-vulgar mouth. Instead, he opts to play teacher, grading opponents on a curve that holds himself as standard. He is an anti-hero to some, a villain to most. Floyd Mayweather is a tough guy to like, even tougher to beat.
Ricky Hatton, a Manchester, England franchise on par with the famed United Soccer squad, is the polar opposite of Mayweather. Hatton is a blue-collar guy, the kind that takes his lunch pail to work and takes it down with a pint of ale after a hard day of manual labor. Hatton is easy to identify with for the working class fans, a demographic that composes a large percent of the boxing community.
The contrast between the two fighters is vivid, perhaps as graphic as has been seen in any major fight during this decade. One guy is a psuedo-thug who calls himself "Pretty Boy", making the rounds with 50 Cent and putting his bling on display. The other enters the ring to "Blue Moon", has red hair and is beloved in his native England. The diversity of their personalities polarizes fans, like Holmes-Cooney or Lewis-Tyson. You are either rooting for one man or the other; You simply can't like them both. But more than that, this fight is a metaphor for two different attitudes and lifestyles, clashing for validation.
Floyd Mayweather Jr. was adament about retiring after the de la Hoya fight, a commitment that lasted slightly longer than his sparring partner, Carlos Baldomir's, reprieve. Mayweather's theme for the fight seems to be proving that he is the best fighter who ever lived. "Forget Sugar Ray and the rest," Mayweather, 38-0 (24 KO) said at a London press conference, "I am the best boxer that ever lived." What rationalizes this fight is the possibility that Hatton could apply enough sustained, intelligent pressure to make Mayweather fight at a faster pace than normal. That's the kind of challenge Mayweather needs to prove that his rants of greatness aren't just delusions of grandeur.
Mayweather took this fight because it makes the most sense for him. It's an attractive fight financially where most of the burden of moving tickets will be carried by Hatton. However, just as was the case in his fights with Oscar De La Hoya and Arturo Gatti, the crowd's sentiment will not be in his corner.
Leonard Ellerbe, the vocal adviser to Mayweather, believes otherwise. "It makes me sick to the stomach when people say Hatton is the draw. He may have 30,000 fans in Vegas on the week of the fight. But guess what, they're coming to see Floyd. They had unlimited access to Hatton's fights in the US before so why didn't they come? Hatton has a big name, but it's only in the UK."
Mayweather has his own appeal, which circulates around his distinction as the best fighter in the world. For this fight to be a big event, it would need a personality to fill the void where Mayweather's mouth shoots him in the foot. Hence, Ricky Hatton finds himself integral to the fight's success.
Hatton's appeal is unique, something that American audiences cannot relate to. Put it this way, if the fight was in England, how many fans would make the trans-Atlantic journey to see Mayweather-Hatton? Here's a hint, not 30,000. Hatton is a prized export, like Manny Pacquiao is to the Philippines, like Naseem Hamed was to England, like Julio Cesar Chavez was to Mexico. To America, Floyd Mayweather is just a prizefighter. To England, Ricky Hatton is much more.
The general consensus among top analysts in the sport seems to point towards Mayweather, and by some margin. In a recent poll posted by The Nevada Appeal, Teddy Atlas, Emmanuel Steward, and Ronnie Shields all picked Mayweather to win. Said Shields, "Floyd Mayweather is going to beat the hell out of him...Floyd is in a class all by himself right now. Floyd has learned to make adjustments early in fights now. I don't think Ricky Hatton can." Even Joe Calzaghe, the other contemporary British Sensation, was quoted as leaning towards a Mayweather victory.
Perhaps the most stinging insult came from Floyd Mayweather Sr., who implied that Arturo Gatti, who was thoroughly smashed in a 2005 rout against "Pretty Boy", would prove to be a sterner test.
If Hatton has one X-Factor, it seems to be in Oscar de la Hoya, the lead promoter of the event. De La Hoya has his targets set on a fight with Hatton should he beat Mayweather. De La Hoya even helped arrange sparring partners to work with Hatton. In case you are wondering, Oscar's company, Golden Boy Promotions, is the lead promoter in this event. It can't hurt your chances if the promoter is in your corner.
The danger for Mayweather lies in complacency. Hatton didn't travel 1000s of miles to be humiliated in front of the world. Billy Graham, trainer of Hatton, claims that Mayweather's overconfidence is a front for his own insecurities. "If he's not concerned about Ricky he's a fool and I don't think he's a fool. Their team is too experienced to underestimate Ricky Hatton. They know it's more complicated than what they're saying."
Hatton has a lot at stake in this fight. Beating Kostya Tszyu was excellent, but Hatton's subsequent matchups in America have raised suspicions of Hatton's merits. First came his welterweight debut against Luis Collazo, a controversial decision win in which Hatton left the ring looking like his face had been runover by a jeep on four doughnuts. What people wanted to know was, "How could Hatton possibly deal with Mayweather's speed if Collazo was too steep a challenge?"
Wins over a worn-out Jose Luis Castillo and Juan Urango didn't accomplish much, and certainly aren't worth much to prepare for what Floyd Mayweather brings to the table. It's safe to say that Hatton's recent opposition is like playing Flag Football to get ready for the NBA Finals.
Despite the opinions of many experts, Billy Graham invests a great deal of confidence in his charge Hatton. "Ricky Hatton will beat him," Graham proclaimed during a conference call. "Ricky is more intense than others but he's also a lot smarter. I don't think Floyd has faced a more skilled pressure fighter than Ricky. If he's not concerned about Ricky he's a fool and I don't think he's a fool."
Lloyd Honeyghan, who pulled off one of the biggest surprises in British boxing history when he upset Donald Curry in 1986, left the door open for Hatton to get the job done. "There's no question that Ricky's strong enough to chase Mayweather down and close him down all night," Honeyghan told England's Telegraph newspaper. "Mayweather's definitely beatable. It's a great fight, the classical fighter against the classical boxer. But can he pull it off like I did? I don't know."
If you care to look back three years ago, pre-Tszyu, Hatton was seen as nothing more than an overseas novelty with an accent that turned off Americans. Now he's in with Mayweather, perhaps the best fighter of the last 20 years. A determined man is a dangerous man. Says Hatton, "I don't look at the man, or the belts he has got, or the fights he has won. I look at him as a fighter, I look at his style and assess whether I have what it takes to beat him. I believe I can not only beat Mayweather, but I can stop him."
The pundits and fans are overwhelmingly picking Mayweather based on his talent and accrued merits. But we've all been wrong before.
Any questions or comments? Send them to me at mc_rson@yahoo.com
