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The Check Hook-Mark Kriegel, columnist
Ricky Hatton mounted his final charge midway through the 10th round. The Brits were still chanting for him, finding cause for optimism in their man's inexorable forward progress. Floyd Mayweather Jr. detected something else — an opportunity.
He stepped left and threw the hook that caught Hatton flush under the chin.
"The check hook," said Mayweather.
He had learned the punch as an amateur back in Grand Rapids, Mich. It comes at an angle, part-hook, part-uppercut.
"He walked right into it," said Mayweather. "Never saw it coming."
Ricky Hatton had been knocked down only once before in his pro career, back in 2002, and it's a wonder he was able to get to his feet this time. Then again, the British champ is nothing if not game. For rising, he was rewarded with another left hook-straight right combination. As referee Joe Cortez rushed in to stop the fight, Hatton had already begun his descent. He fell like a capsized ship, crashing into the turnbuckle.
Finally, the British champ had arrived in that mythical place of which his fans speak: Hatton Wonderland.
Knowing that his last couple fights had lacked for drama, Mayweather was determined to resolve this affair more violently.
"I wanted to show the fans I could punch," he said.
As it happened, Mayweather showed a lot more than that.
Hatton is skilled, dangerous and faster than you think. But chief among his virtues is his relentlessness. He keeps coming, undaunted, undiscouraged. As Hatton's 43 previous opponents could testify, that kind of pressure can break a fighter, psychologically if not physically. Hatton's plan had been to fight inside, to maul and brawl. For most of the night, he got his way, or perhaps Mayweather let him have it.
The difference between Mayweather and the other 43 — indeed, between Mayweather and any fighter in the world — has to do with both skill and composure. He has the skill, of course. He slips and rolls as well as anyone. But more impressive was his ability to deal with the pressure. Everybody knew Mayweather would fare better at a distance than Hatton. But it turns out he's a better in-fighter as well.
"I thought I was rough and tumble," Hatton would say later, a black Kangol cap shading the cut over his right eye. "But he understood to give the rough stuff right back to me."
And then some, as Hatton spoke of the shoulders, the elbows and especially the forearms he took from this not-so-pretty boy Floyd. That's not to say Hatton had any complaints.
"It ain't a tickling contest," he said.
I had Mayweather winning seven of the first nine rounds. He was slick and strong, rough but poised. He began by catching Hatton with perfectly placed hooks to stop the Englishman's charges.
Later, in the center of the ring, he found the distance to slip and reach Hatton with an occasional right hand. But most of the fight was fought in the clinches, on the ropes. There, Mayweather held off a very powerful man, even scoring the better body blows.
"I hurt him a couple times," Mayweather said. "But damn, he kept coming."
In fact, after Mayweather opened a cut over Hatton's right eye, he came faster.
"I put me foot on the gas," Hatton said.
But the more Hatton charged, the more vulnerable he became. In trying to maul Mayweather, he also smothered his own punches. Hatton is a smart fighter, but he lost any sense of distance.
In the eighth, Mayweather buckled Hatton with a straight right hand. In the ninth, he opened some distance and began to slip and pop Hatton with jabs and right hands.
Still, Hatton returned for the 10th with renewed ferocity. His fans had begun to chant again. There's only one Ricky Hatton ...
They struck up the band, the trumpets and the drums. Their man charged again.
"Check-hook".
Hatton Wonderland.
"I'm getting a bit sick of that song meself," Hatton said.
Ricky Hatton mounted his final charge midway through the 10th round. The Brits were still chanting for him, finding cause for optimism in their man's inexorable forward progress. Floyd Mayweather Jr. detected something else — an opportunity.
He stepped left and threw the hook that caught Hatton flush under the chin.
"The check hook," said Mayweather.
He had learned the punch as an amateur back in Grand Rapids, Mich. It comes at an angle, part-hook, part-uppercut.
"He walked right into it," said Mayweather. "Never saw it coming."
Ricky Hatton had been knocked down only once before in his pro career, back in 2002, and it's a wonder he was able to get to his feet this time. Then again, the British champ is nothing if not game. For rising, he was rewarded with another left hook-straight right combination. As referee Joe Cortez rushed in to stop the fight, Hatton had already begun his descent. He fell like a capsized ship, crashing into the turnbuckle.
Finally, the British champ had arrived in that mythical place of which his fans speak: Hatton Wonderland.
Knowing that his last couple fights had lacked for drama, Mayweather was determined to resolve this affair more violently.
"I wanted to show the fans I could punch," he said.
As it happened, Mayweather showed a lot more than that.
Hatton is skilled, dangerous and faster than you think. But chief among his virtues is his relentlessness. He keeps coming, undaunted, undiscouraged. As Hatton's 43 previous opponents could testify, that kind of pressure can break a fighter, psychologically if not physically. Hatton's plan had been to fight inside, to maul and brawl. For most of the night, he got his way, or perhaps Mayweather let him have it.
The difference between Mayweather and the other 43 — indeed, between Mayweather and any fighter in the world — has to do with both skill and composure. He has the skill, of course. He slips and rolls as well as anyone. But more impressive was his ability to deal with the pressure. Everybody knew Mayweather would fare better at a distance than Hatton. But it turns out he's a better in-fighter as well.
"I thought I was rough and tumble," Hatton would say later, a black Kangol cap shading the cut over his right eye. "But he understood to give the rough stuff right back to me."
And then some, as Hatton spoke of the shoulders, the elbows and especially the forearms he took from this not-so-pretty boy Floyd. That's not to say Hatton had any complaints.
"It ain't a tickling contest," he said.
I had Mayweather winning seven of the first nine rounds. He was slick and strong, rough but poised. He began by catching Hatton with perfectly placed hooks to stop the Englishman's charges.
Later, in the center of the ring, he found the distance to slip and reach Hatton with an occasional right hand. But most of the fight was fought in the clinches, on the ropes. There, Mayweather held off a very powerful man, even scoring the better body blows.
"I hurt him a couple times," Mayweather said. "But damn, he kept coming."
In fact, after Mayweather opened a cut over Hatton's right eye, he came faster.
"I put me foot on the gas," Hatton said.
But the more Hatton charged, the more vulnerable he became. In trying to maul Mayweather, he also smothered his own punches. Hatton is a smart fighter, but he lost any sense of distance.
In the eighth, Mayweather buckled Hatton with a straight right hand. In the ninth, he opened some distance and began to slip and pop Hatton with jabs and right hands.
Still, Hatton returned for the 10th with renewed ferocity. His fans had begun to chant again. There's only one Ricky Hatton ...
They struck up the band, the trumpets and the drums. Their man charged again.
"Check-hook".
Hatton Wonderland.
"I'm getting a bit sick of that song meself," Hatton said.
to your mom..
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