Mayweather KOs Hatton in 10th Round
If you saw Floyd Mayweather Jr. outpoint Oscar De La Hoya back in May ... well, this fight was the complete opposite of that one.
Oscar tried to outpoint "Pretty Boy" ... tried to outpunch him, and it turned out to be an artistically interesting but emotionally unsatisfying fight.
Ricky Hatton didn't bother with all that blocking and parrying. He just waded in and tried to brawl. Which made for a fairly ugly fight but a satisfying one. Make sense?
Hatton carried the fight early, but Mayweather isn't the planet's "best pound for pound" boxer for no reason. He had a plan.
He let Hatton push him onto the ropes, but usually landed one sharp shot to the head before Hatton got inside ... and then clinched and grabbed and tied up Hatton ... keeping him from working the body effectively, or sneaking in head shots.
Hatton led early thanks to his aggression and energy ... but by the middle rounds Mayweather was spending more time in the middle of the ring, where his six-inch reach advantage told on Hatton's face.
In Round 10, probably knowing he was behind on the judges' cards, Hatton went chasing Mayweather into a corner, hoping to land a left hook.
But while Hatton's hook was en route, a left hook of Mayweather's crashed into Hatton's temple with severe violence, essentially knocking him out on his feet.
Hatton pitched forward, his head crashing into the turn buckle, and he bounced off and fell backwards, hitting the deck. He was up a few seconds later, but it was clear he was in major trouble, and Mayweather is too good to not know when a guy is only barely conscious.
Mayweather closed in, landed two, three more head shots, and even as referee Joe Cortez grabbed Mayweather to halt the proceedings, Hatton went to the canvas again. And it was doubly over.
Hatton is crude, a charging bull of a fighter, but without much punching power -- at the 147-pound limit, anyway. He is brave, and he is relentless, but he took too much punishment getting close and did very little damage once he got there.
Hatton's fans made the event memorable. Some 6,000 Britons were inside the MGM Grand Garden, and they chanted and sang for much of the fight. It was a great atmosphere.
Mayweather is talking about taking off a big chunk of time, but he's more marketable right this moment than ever -- thanks to Hatton's clumsy rushes, which required Pretty Boy to do more than his usual float-like-a-butterfly, hit-and-run shtick.
Now we've been reminded that Floyd can hit and be hit, and I'm way more interested in seeing his next fight than I was after the Oscar technique-fest.
Big purses usually lure fighters into the ring. Expect to see Mayweather back out there again in 6-9 months, maybe vs. Miguel Cotto. Maybe for a rematch with Oscar.
Hatton? I'm sure he's still a hero in England, the gutty little lad from the Midlands ... but any idea that he is some sort of elite fighter should be well and truly put to rest, now.