Enzo Maccarinelli and Clinton Woods on Mayweather v Hatton

Will Ricky Hatton be the first to beat Floyd Mayweather? Enzo Maccarinelli and Clinton Woods argue whether Ricky Hatton has what it takes to bring Floyd Mayweather down a peg Yes: Enzo Maccarinelli, WBO cruiserweight champion I have to admit that when it was first announced the fight would take place, like many other people, I thought Floyd Mayweather was a certainty to win - he's a five-weight world champion and Ricky Hatton has only fought at welterweight once before. But as time has gone on it has become clear it is going to be a lot closer than anyone anticipated. Having watched tapes of both Ricky and Floyd in recent weeks and seeing how Ricky has been growing in confidence, I am convinced he is going to do it. You should not underestimate him as a force with the ability that he has. Ricky is more than the one-dimensional comeforward fighter he has been described as by some analysts. I think we will see him show that he can really box and switch things around. I'm certainly not taking Mayweather lightly - he is an exceptional talent, the fighter of his era, as Roy Jones Jr was a few years ago. In fact, there are misconceptions around both of them. Just as Ricky isn't simply a hard puncher, and has more speed and agility than he is given credit for, so I think Mayweather punches a lot harder than people believe. When he fought Oscar De La Hoya in their light-middleweight superfi ght earlier this year, everyone was talking about the damage that De La Hoya could do, but the only fighter to wobble in the bout was De La Hoya, not Floyd. He has also never really had a knockdown - he chose to touch the floor for a count against Carlos Hernández in 2001. I wonder, though, whether he has ever taken shots to the body of the ferocity he will get from Ricky, whose style will not suit Mayweather at all. Against De La Hoya, Floyd lost the first five or six rounds. De La Hoya was a bigger man; he got up close which allowed him to put a lot of pressure on Mayweather and Ricky can do the same. Floyd likes it when he controls the tempo of the fight, he likes his space and to do things in his own time. De La Hoya refused to give him that space and Mayweather was clearly struggling. Towards the latter part of the fight, De La Hoya started to fade, as he had done in all of his previous fights. Ricky won't and he will have a much higher work rate than De La Hoya at that stage. As for the rumours that Mayweather is having trouble with his hands and that is why his sessions are behind closed doors this week, I think it is simply all part of the build-up to the fight. There is no way Mayweather would have been allowed to injure his hands in the build-up . He has been sparring in private because he doesn't want anyone to know exactly what his plan is. That is a mark of respect to Ricky - he knows he is in for probably the biggest fight of his own career. All the criticism of Hatton is just Mayweather's bravado. He says the same about everybody and is always going on about how he is the best and that no one else can come near him. But it doesn't mean he is not taking Ricky very seriously. And Ricky can beat Mayweather's plan, whatever it is, because he will not give him the time Floyd needs to maximise his speed and agility. Boxing is very strong in Britain at the moment. In the past couple of years we've proved we can take on the Yanks and beat them. As Ricky has said, his heart will explode before he will stop fighting. Ricky's time is now and I truly believe he can do this on Saturday night. No: Clinton Woods, IBF light-heavyweight champion I am a huge fan of Ricky's and I would love him to prove me wrong in Las Vegas this weekend but my gut instinct is that Floyd Mayweather will prevail to become the undisputed world champion. I will probably be made out to be the bad guy in British boxing for saying so but in technical terms I believe that Mayweather is the better fighter. In saying that, I am sure that I will be on the receiving end of countless phone calls giving me grief at the end of the fight if Ricky wins, and in my heart I will be willing him to do just that. The problem Hatton has is simple: Mayweather is the best in the world. Not only has he won six world titles at fi ve weights but as he has come up through the divisions he has beaten the best in the world at that time. He dominated José Luis Castillo in his prime, Carlos Baldomir in his prime. He has made good fighters, champions, look lost in the ring, has never really been given a hard fight by anyone and rarely gets hit. And let's not forget that Mayweather fought Arturo Gatti - who is a come-forward fighter like Ricky - at light-welterweight and made it look easy. Before that fight, Mayweather was, as usual, winding up Gatti and talking about how he was going to destroy him, yet a lot of pundits predicted he would struggle to cope with Gatti's style. He didn't and the fight was over in six rounds. I have read several articles recently from people saying that Ricky can fight going backwards and will change the way he normally boxes to confuse Mayweather. But I don't believe that. Ricky knows one way to fight, to come forward. To win, he has to take it to Mayweather, throw his punches, attack the body and put as much pressure on his opponent as he can in the early rounds. But Mayweather has fought guys who have tried to do that before. His defence, the way he rolls with the punches, is supreme. That speed is something that will trouble Hatton. I was watching a tape of Mayweather fighting the other day and it was staggering to watch him slipping shot after shot and then coming back and landing several of his own. We all know that Ricky has had problems with fragile skin in the past and while he hasn't had much trouble recently with cuts, he hasn't fought anyone like Mayweather either. No one should play down Mayweather's abilities. His media persona is that of a brash bighead and some people are beginning to buy into the idea that he talks better than he fights. But you only have to look at how well he has prepared for his opponent when he gets into the ring to see it is just talk and I do not believe he will underestimate Ricky. Floyd will have been training harder for this fight than any other in his life. People might not like his bling, his Bentley or the way he bad-mouths opponents, but away from the public gaze you often find guys like this are very different. Chris Eubank was exactly the same, a trash-talker who everyone loved to hate. It didn't take anything away from the way he fought. Hatton's victory over a formidable Kostya Tszyu a couple of years ago defined his career at the time, but Tszyu was no Mayweather. And in his speed, his freshness and his ring craft, Floyd is a far different prospect from anyone Hatton has faced before. http://blogs.guardian.co.uk/sport/2007/12/05/will_ricky_hatton_be_the_first.html