Reactions to Tonight's Fight

[Miburo]

Now that the requisite three hours have passed for this forum to stabilize, here are my comments:

So much for Hatton's vaunted "improved" defense. Whatever he had learned was quickly abandoned as he just rushed in with no head movement like he always has, thinking to win simply on physical strength alone. Did anyone hear Mayweather Sr. berating Hatton in the corner "You should have been listenin' to me from day one!"

Pacquiao was strafing him with right hooks at will from the opening bell, and after about the second shot landed flush you could see the pattern the fight would take. Either Hatton's camp focused entirely on guarding against the left hand to the disregard of the right hook (which admittedly appeared to be effective for Hatton until he was severely hurt), or whatever preparation was taken was not enough to prepare him for the speed at which Pacquiao throws it.

Pacquiao appears to be a significantly improved fighter even over his late days at the 130 limit. I still have serious doubts as to whether stylistically and physically he will be able to overcome Mayweather, but he has earned a greater status than Floyd at this point. It is now Mayweather who has to prove himself in this comeback. Another bout with Marquez would give us the measurement which we need to gauge how far he has come, but that bout has no chance of coming off before a clash with Mayweather so we will have little more than his fights with Diaz-onward to go on.

It's almost regrettable that this bout must be made as if Pacquiao loses (likely) it will somewhat tarnish the aura he has built up around himself and negatively affect the evaluation of him as the truly all-time great fighter which he is (a loss is a loss after all - a win on the other hand, of course, would propel him into truly godlike status in the boxing pantheon). Likewise for Mayweather, who in losing (given the extreme amount of hate directed at him in the boxing world) would severely hurt his historically standing, while I don't see a win improving it that drastically either.

One thing to consider is that Mayweather may actually look better coming out of retirement if the long layoff gave his chronic injuries (hands, back) time to recover sufficiently. He could of course just as easily have slid somewhat in terms of reflexes and speed, but given his lifestyle it's likely he will be at roughly the same level as when he retired - he is still relatively young for a fighter after all.

[Spray_resistant]

As far as Hatton/Pacquiao goes there is only one word that comes to mind and that is.....ownage.

[woftam]

Manny was awesome today.
Rick has stepped in the ring with 2 of the best p4p fighters of the last decade and has come up well short both times. I think his chances of getting another big fight are virtually zero and he may as well hang the gloves up. I guess Many & Floyd is the fight that everyone now wants to make, but I still think Shane Moseley would be a real tough fight for both of them and they will want no part of him.

Before tonight I still doubted Manny could do the business in the higher divisions. Not anymore. His power & speed follow him up and anyone taking him on will do so at their own peril. Great win.

[MANGLER]

I knew Pac would stop him, but not so fast. **** was crazy. We were kinda disappointed over here.

[Foodie One]

Mayweather is next to be completely Knocked-out by the Pacman. I hope they fight in December. JAT

[Silencers]

Let me start off by saying that it was a great performance from Pacquiao and a great gameplan from Freddie Roach, they knew exactly how to beat Hatton and Pacquiao executed it to perfection.

As I said before the fight (not sure if I said it here), Hatton's win over Malignaggi could be a little deceiving because he didn't have to worry about anything coming back at him from Malignaggi, I mean Malignaggi is a good boxer and all but had been looking bad in his past couple of fights and couldn't crack an egg with those hands. Some of the flaws that were present with Hatton prior to the Malignaggi fight were still there, not as many of them but he still had flaws that a guy like Pacquiao could have exploited and ultimately did.

I also thought that Hatton's gameplan was all wrong, his advantage was in size and strength but the gameplan seemed to be all about patience and using the jab from the outside to get inside, not much head movement (which probably wouldn't have mattered anyways because Pacquiao was just oo fast for him but head movement could have helped), he didn't put a lot of intense pressure on Pacquiao, Pacquiao's back barely touched the ropes in the fight. Pacquiao I think also surprised him with his strength on the inside, he pushed Hatton back in 1 or 2 of the clinches and didn't allow Hatton to push him around. Much credit to Kenny Bayless as well, he did a good job in there, gave Hatton enough time to work but didn't give him time to make the fight ugly.

Pacquiao showed his versatility even though it was only 2 rounds long, he had movement, he came forward, he threw combinations, he snuck in body shots, he had his moments on the inside, he barely got hit by anything except for once or twice when he was in the clinches and Hatton hit him while he was holding him, he had head movement and he set up the finishing left hook beautifully.

Again, Pacquiao fought a great fight and he's a great fighter, no one has ever annihilated Hatton like that, not even at 147. Pacquiao destroyed him in 2 in Hatton's own weightclass. I can't wait to see what he does next, I wouldn't count him out against the likes of Cotto, Mosley and Mayweather, even if they are naturally bigger than him.

As for Hatton, he's a good fighter who tried his best but again fell short against the best in world, no shame in that. I think he'll be considering retirement now, I doubt he'll want to work his way back up the ladder and I would not like to see him become a gatekeeper or anything like that.

Edit: 1 more thing, if Hatton wants to keep fighting, I think he should get rid of Mayweather Sr., those disagreements they had during training camp could get worse and their styles don't seem to mesh well.

[Technical_Skill]

Forget feelings, he's gonna employ the wrong tactics right away, 1st couple of rounds it will be close, thats hatton's best chance right there if he does his bull rushing, but the speed difference is gonna become very apparent, footwork and timing and cliniching wins the fight for hatton. He wont do it, he steam in head up thinking about the fight being at 140 and getting manny on the back foot.

He prolly wont even see the shots coming.

That's exactly what I thought was going to happen, till I heard hatton and mayweather Sr talking. Seriously, he's talking about steaming in, this time with a jab, trying to get manny on the back foot, he's f.uckin nutz for real.

Freddie roach has had months to prepare Pacman for the tactic hatton is gonna employ, same as when Mayweather Jr spanked him a while back, Hatton's needs to mix it up to have any chance, but he doesnt, as result, youv'e got a fighter who has spent months preparing to be rushed and mauled will use lateral movement and timing to land the shots, then Hatton doesnt have a plan B.

He wont do that, the guy is talking about steaming in, but moving his head as he does it, trust me, he's never seen speed like manny will bring to him, when he comes in straight lines, he's got a few rounds to do some real damage or he's getting hurt.

Forget the bigger man crap from team hatton, he's got to use the correct footwork more than anything in this fight, that's what gets him inside.

After the fight, you can blame mayweather sr btw, thats if hatton loses.

Hearing these two talk tactics about the fight is crazy, I hope they are trying to lull pac into a false sense of security, because right now, Freddie Roach knows exactly what they are gonna try and do and he's had months to prepare pac for the same tactics.
All they will do for pac is emphasize on lateral movement, staying off the ropes and hitting on the move.

This was some of my analysis of the fight weeks ago.

Quite Simply, Hatton didnt use any head movement, he actually circled the right way a few times (you have to look hard to see those bits lol) and got in without taking shots, but in the end it was the same old story and he kept squaring up, coming in straight lines, reverting back to type, hands low, head up pretty much everything people thought he was gonna do, only a lot earlier on in the fight.

Mayweather Sr takes a portion of the blame because his tactics were wrong from day one, I gave hatton a good chance until he talked about steaming in but moving his head as he was doing it. Quite simply, the speed factor meant he wouldnt have time to move his head in time, he wouldnt see the shots coming, secondly, he'd obviously forget all that once he got hit hard. Also, Hatton was never the same fighter after Mayweather took him into deep waters back in 07, his punch resistance isnt what it was.

I said that Mayweather Sr doesnt add value to hatton's skillset and while mayweather takes blame for the steaming in with a jab and head movement idea, hatton has to take the flack for not even being able to follow that plan in the ring.

Pacquiao was impressive tonight in terms of timing, I thought it would take him a few rounds to dial it in, but it took seconds, a mark of how much he has improved as a fighter.

The mayweather fight is definitley a different prospect than it was years ago, with Pacman having a serious chance of beating mayweather with his freakish speed and workrate. However I think Mayweather has already seen some key mistakes in Pacman's game, I saw a few things last night that I dont think pacman could ever get away with against a fighter like mayweather in his prime. Regardless, credit to Pacquiao, he made the right hook more of a weapon than i thought it would be and made an impression on hatton from the first bell.

[Uturn]

I wasn't expecting the fight to end that fast infact i was pretty shocked to Hatton get KTFO in the second round in devasting fashion. He was getting caught to easy and couldn't deal with the speed of Manny. It makes me think what Hatton's tactics actually were? I didn't see anything different from Hatton, walking in straight lines, bad head movement, getting caught cheaply and easily. Pac is just out his league

[El Dominicano]

Like the sayin goes "Can't teach an old dog new tricks" Some people are getting at Floyd Sr. but Floyd Sr gave him the right instructions, Pacquaio just wen't back to his old self

[Google_It_Bitch]

I was excited. I personally felt Manny would stop Hatton in 5 so I felt kind of cheated because I wanted to see Hatton take more punishment :fight:

As soon as the first knock down came, I yelled Floyd is a fruad and a thief! You see! I told you! Floyd had to cheat to beat this bum and Manny just came and tsunamied that ass. I said that is how a real pound 4 pound champion does things. Not run all night and then land one lucky punch. Samething goes with PBF's performance vs De La *****. It was a fraud display and it was not a beating. Again Manny showed the world what a true king champion should do. It made Floyd look so bad and even Horus is saying to herself, why didnt my boyfriend do oscar and ricky that way? Horus now has doubt about how great Fraud Mayweather Jr really is :lmfao: