In the last Manny Paquiao – Ricky Hatton fight the fans went in head to head with each other from Pacman vs. Hitman to Pinoys vs. Britons. Filipinos are out numbered and out cheered with the 25,000 strong Brits who flew in to watch and support Ricky “the hitman” Hatton, MGM Grand was full to the rafters and according to reports 80% of them were Hatton supporters, they gave the Filipinos a taste of what cheering should be during the weight-in, Hatton was no different from his fans he talk to much, making himself a fool, believing in all that he says he even considered Paquiao an amateur. But during fight night things went a little different.


Early on in the fight Hatton is obviously no match to Paquiao’s combination of power and speed after weeks of training all he had was to launch a few jabs clinch with his left while hitting Manny with his right. Big mouth Hatton was hit and knock down twice in the first round, he was shaking his head on his second visit to the canvass unfortunately what matters inside the ring is the punches not the speeches, the Britons were shouting, cheering and rooting Hatton but to no avail eventually they were “shocked and awed” [ thanks, George Bush] as if the glaciers of Greenland froze over England when in the 2nd round, 10 ticks before the bell Hitman was hit, the powerful left hook of Pacman found its target, it was a punch coming from the prayers of all the Filipino people, the square jaw of Hatton was shaken out of its place he was already sleeping on his way down, he was devastated, annihilated, crushed and wasted. The referee could count up to 20 and he would sill be out he was gasping for breath, his eyes were rolling and half close like in a dream state, he was dreaming for quite sometime anyway when he predicted that he could beat Manny Paquiao on the 6th round,, the proud union jack of Britain, the back print of Hatton’s fighting shorts went down with him, it literally kiss the canvass.

The trainer of loud-mouth Hatton, louder-mouth Floyd Mayweather Sr. is nowhere to be found, on the other hand Oscar DelaHoya, Hatton’s promoter says a day before that he would have gone down in December if it was Ricky Hatton he was going against with, short of saying that “hitman” is better than “pacman”. Paquiao did not knock him out because he did not finish the fight and Manny admire him so much, after all the history making fights of many Paquiao there are still people who under estimates he’s power, They easily picked out Hatton over Paquiao because of the color of their skin somehow discrimination still come to play. But at the end of the day it’s the power and skill that matters. (fr.Random Thoughts 051209)