Among modern day boxing bouts, the Pacquiao-Hatton fight, I think, is one of the most difficult to predict. Reason: both fighters are equally good, they are both brawlers in the ring, they have big guns to unleash on fight night (May 2 - Saturday; May 3 - Sunday in Manila) and both are knockout artists. In this fight, it is not enough that we use only the “tale of the tapes” so-to-speak, to predict the outcome of the fight.
Before we come to the “tale of the tape”, let us examine more closely the two fighters.
A hero in his native Philippines, the 30-year-old Pacquiao (48-3-2, 36 KOs) is regarded by most boxing observers as the sport's pound-for-pound king. Demonstrating knockout power in five weight classes, his recent victory over his boxing idol, ring legend Oscar de la Hoya, was cause for national celebration. Amid growing worldwide popularity, he returns to the 140-pound division to take on the hard-hitting Hatton.
On the other hand, Ricky Hatton (45-1, 32 KOs), who hails from the streets of Manchester, England, has a tenacious fighting style and a heavy puncher too. The 30-year-old suffered his only professional loss in December 2007 when he battled now Hall of Famer Floyd Mayweather Jr. as a welterweight. Now back in the junior welterweight ranks, he wants to prove himself the most formidable fighter in that division.
Both fighters (Pacquiao and Hatton) brought to shameful defeat the "Goden Boy" Oscar dela Hoya. Hatton defeated Dela Hoya about two years ago when he was presumably still in the prime of his boxing career. Pacquiao defeated Dela Hoya more than five months ago and Ricky Hatton says that that win was a fluke as Dela Hoya was already diminishingly slow. Assuming that Dela Hoya had in fact been diminished in his usual fighting prowess a little bit but he still showed potentially deadly punches especially if given an opponent a little less than Manny Pacquiao’s caliber. It just happened that Manny Pacquiao was too much for him that he looked like he was no longer the usual ‘golden boy’ that he used to be.
Both fighters are thirty years old, though Hatton is slightly over an inch taller than Pacquiao. But observers say that Pacquiao uses his speed better when faced with opponents who are a bit taller than him. With respect to knockouts, Pacquiao had 75% of his fights in knockouts while Hatton had 71% batting average but Pacquiao lost thrice and Hatton suffered only one defeat in his boxing career.
But more than anything else, Pacquiao’s big heart is his most potent weapon. As he says, his hand will do more of the talking than his mouth when he faces Ricky Hatton on their fight night.
Hatton could be heavier on fight night, but weight advantage is one thing and hitting is another. On fight night Dela Hoya was four kilograms heavier than Pacquiao but we never saw that advantage in Dela Hoya. Hatton, is of course, a little bit different than Dela Hoya which Manny acknowledged himself. That is why he says that speed and skill are his best weapons against Hatton.
This is the only Pacquiao fight, to me, that is truly unpredictable. We can only be very sure about one thing and that this is going to be a very explosive fight from beginning to end with both fighters out to prove something. The win for any of them is a win like no other.
And so given all of the above, what do I have in my score card before the fight? Well, I think (and my fearless forecast, so-to-speak), the fight shall last until the 12th full round with both men battered but still standing up to the last round. Being, I guess, a closely contested fight, the winner shall be declared by a split decision. In such case, nobody is real winner and loser. That will be good for both of them in their boxing career and the re-match shall then be more exciting than this first one.
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