Tonight see's the much anticipated bout between Ricky ‘The Hitman’ Hatton, and Manny ‘The Pacman’ Pacquiao at the infamous MGM Grand, in Las Vegas, the venue for Hatton’s one and only professional defeat to Floyd Mayweather Junior.
Under the tutelage of Floyd Mayweather Senior, Hatton will be looking to not repeat his below par performance that saw him knocked out in the 10th round by Mayweather Jnr last year.
Pacquiao, who is heralded the best pound for pound boxer in the world, since the retirement of Hatton’s conqueror, Mayweather Jnr, is coming off the back of an impressive victory over ‘The Golden Boy’ Oscar De La Hoya a few months ago.
Going into this contest, neither man has come out as a clear favourite, with a lot of experts saying that tonight’s fight will come out as a draw.
I’m not one to sit on the fence myself normally, but with my lack of boxing knowledge it’s hard for me to pick a winner as well, despite these two being two boxers that I know a little bit about.
For Hatton though, in my opinion, tonight’s match-up is make or break for his career.
There is no denying that Hatton has had a stellar career and to only lose one match in 46 is a brilliant achievement, but winning a top, top, level match up against the likes of Mayweather Jnr or Pacquiao will be the defining moment of his career should he manage to achieve it.
Pacquiao’s main threat is his speed, much like Mayweather Jnr; Hatton’s main threat is his power, and in his match against Mayweather Jnr the one disappointment was that Hatton was reluctant to throw body punches, and for a man of his power and precision, Hatton’s body punches will win him matches.
Hatton believes that he is in the best form of his career, and there have been many encouraging words coming out of the Hatton camp recently, but more recently there have been rumours about differences in the camp between Hatton and Mayweather Snr.
Hatton will know, much like Amir Khan knew going into his match against Marco Antonio Barrera, that he has to win tonight, for him to put the icing on a magnificent cake that is his career, and he will need to win tonight because matches like these, that will be watched my millions, if not billions, around the world do not come around often.
Comments coming from the Hatton camp seem to suggest that Hatton wants another crack at Mayweather Jnr, despite him being retired at this present moment in time, but for Hatton to gain that money spinning encounter against one of the most charismatic boxers of our time, he needs to get past The Pac Man tonight.
Should Hatton lose, the rematch with Mayweather Jnr is very unlikely and the rumours about Hatton possibly retiring will come around again, but whether your optimistic about tonight, or a pessimist like myself, there’s no doubting that there will be a whole host of people up till the crack of dawn, cheering on Hatton, hoping it will be worth the Sky Box Office fee of £14.95 and the lack of sleep.
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