By Ronnie Nathanielsz
IBO light welterweight champion Ricky “The Hitman” Hatton’s British trainer Lee Beard is full of praise for Filipino boxing hero Manny Pacquiao with whom Hatton squares off in the “Battle of East and West” in Las Vegas on May 2.
Lee Beard, in a lengthy overseas telephone conversation with BoxingScene.com, insidesports.ph, Standard Today and Viva Sports said he had met Pacquiao before at Freddie Roach’s Wild Card Gym in Los Angeles and described Pacquiao as “a great person” and said he was “like Roach, a very humble guy. They both welcomed me to the gym where I watched Manny sparring.”
Beard recalled that he “went up to Manny’s suite after the David Diaz fight. He gave me a signed pair of shorts and I gave him a black t-shirt. He is truly a nice guy and one of my favorite fighters.” He said he was looking forward to meeting Pacquiao and Roach again when they visit London and Manchester on the promotional tour which opens at the end of February.
He said “every time you watch Pacquiao fight, it’s a great fight. He is a fun fighter who puts his heart on his sleeve.”
Looking ahead to the Pacquiao-Hatton showdown, Beard described it as “a very difficult fight because of the magnitude of things. But it’s the one fight Ricky wants and I’m glad the fight has been made.” He classified the showdown as a “massive fight” for Hatton.
Beard said he is expecting an action-packed fight. He conceded that Pacquiao “is a great fighter, very, very fast and very strong. He’s also a clever fighter who has improved over the past couple of fights at least, or even over the last year or two.”
He said Pacquiao “has shown people he’s not just a brawler. He’s got the right skills and he can box on the back foot.”
The trainer noted that in the past people thought that “Manny couldn’t fight going backwards. Most thought he was a go forward fighter” but they were proven wrong. In fact Beard believes that the Pacquiao of today “is a more rounded fighter and definitely this is going to be an action fight.”
In the assessment of Beard both Pacquiao and Hatton “are very fast on their feet” and while Pacquiao is “extremely quick with his hands, Ricky is also a fast-handed fighter.”
The youthful British trainer believes the combination of Pacquiao and Hatton who both “like to put on a show for the fans” guarantees the kind of fight that boxing fans will enjoy and remember just as Hatton’s father Ray Hatton told us, “its going to be an explosive fight.”
