Handicapping Pacquiao Hatton Fight

Posted by Igor Frank on 04.27.2009

Handicapping a major boxing event ”the Battle of East and West” that is to take place on May 2nd at the MGM Grand Garden Arena in Las Vegas is like trying to predict an outcome of a Superbowl: a very risky proposition.


Photo by Chris Farina / Top Rank

Fans and boxing pundits have less than a week to wait for easily the biggest boxing event of this year, where the pound for pound kingpin Manny "Pacman" Pacquiao will challenge Manchester's pride Ricky "The Hitman" Hatton for the light welterweight supremacy and ring magazine as well as IBO title. The twelve round bout dubbed "The Battle of East and West" is scheduled to take place at the MGM Grand Garden Arena in Las Vegas on May 2nd and will be televised live on HBO Pay Per View. If you would like to experience a big fight atmosphere without paying a high price of admission, most MGM properties around Las Vegas will broadcast this bout live via close circuit TV for a price of approximately fifty dollars.

This is definitely a huge international boxing event. The promotional tour for this fight spanned the globe; from United Kingdom, a home of Ricky Hatton to Philippines, a place where Manny Pacquiao has become an icon, to United States where the contest is to take place. Tons of stories have been written about this thrilling match up. Just Google either guys name and you could read news reports about this fight to infinitum. Even major newspapers, that nearly abandoned boxing as a subject for their reporters, have produced a huge number of very informative articles about the upcoming showdown. HBO has generated a tremendous amount of interest in the event with their superbly produced three part documentary 24/7, which showed millions of viewers intimate details of combatants lives as well as their preparation for the fight.

Both guys are so easy to root for because they are genuinely great human beings. Beloved by all the Englismen, Ricky Hatton is a common man hero; with all the fame and fortune he is not averse to having a beer at a local pub or throwing darts with the fellows. Tales of Manny's generosity have become legendary. I have my own story about that. I had a fan in Chicago write to me about a benefit they were throwing to help one of their ill relatives. They wanted to auction a glove signed by a famous boxer. Manny signed it with pleasure at the Wildcard Gym in Hollywood, which generated $800.00 for the family. Small gesture would be remembered forever.

Aside from the huge media attention, just like with Superbowl, there are lots of developing plots and subplots around the event, like a growing animosity between trainers Floyd Mayweather Sr. and Freddie Roach. Just like with Superbowl, aside from posting the odds on a fight which have Pacquiao as favorite at -250 and Hatton as an underdog at +200,Las Vegas book makers have posted a lot of proposition bets on this event. For example, aside from the result of the fight you could bet on your guys to finish the night in any round or you could bet on the contest being a draw or you could even bet who would win this fight on Harold Lederman's scorecards. Just like with Superbowl, it is fun to talk about the fight, to predict the outcome or to even outline the way it should unfold. Along with fans talking around the cooler, boxing media and so called experts will be happy to post their predictions. Some writers make a living doing just that: handicapping and outlining the fights (check out Graham Houston on fightwriter.com doing an in depth preview of numerous battles). Friday night on ESPN Teddy Atlas picked Ricky Hatton to win because of his strength and tenacity. Freddie Roach expects Manny Pacquiao to end matters within first three rounds. Dan Rafael of ESPN.com decided to hold off his prediction till the weigh in. A Pilipino journalist named Granville had this to say about the fight: "Pacquiao by TKO between 5th and 7th...incredibly stronger, preemptively faster and viciously wiser."

However, just like with Superbowl, no one really knows what is going to happen on fight night. Remember when undefeated New England Patriots, heavily favorite and picked by all the experts, lost the game to inspired New York Giants. Last year, Bernard Hopkins, four to one underdog, given no shot at all, gave a boxing lesson to young and then unbeaten bomber Kelly Pavlik. Hopkins also gave a lesson to all the media picking against him; immediately after the fight he stared down at the media tables as if to say: "I told you so." Or who could forget Manny Pacquiao first bout with Marco Antonio Barrera, where no one but his trainer, gave a young Pilipino dynamo a chance. Pacquiao, not only beat the ring legend, but overwhelmed and stopped him in the eleventh round. The latest instance of unpredictable results took place right here at the MGM Grand last December when Pacquiao took on the Golden Boy, Oscar De La Hoya. Most pundits considered it to be a mismatch; De La Hoya was supposed to be too big and too strong for Manny. Kevin Iole of Yahoo Sports went as far as calling this event a farce. You all know what happened there: Pacman destroyed and ultimately retired the Golden Boy.

"Only god knows what's going to happen May, 2nd," said Pacquiao last month at a press conference held in Hollywood, California:" I consider this fight one of the toughest and biggest in my career."

My friend, Steve Harpst, a boxing trainer and a founder of Burbank Boxing Club had a different name for "The Battle of East and West". His way is to label the bout in honor of the boxer who he thinks is going to win, thus he called it Manny Pacquiao fight.Using the same formula, Teddy Atlas would call it Ricky Hatton fight. I decided to skip my detailed analysis of the upcoming battle, because I have been close to Pacquiao camp and know very little about Hatton's preparation and it would be difficult for me to remain impartial. So I would like to ask you: Is this a Pacquiao or a Hatton fight?

------------------------------------------------------

You can now also check us out via Twitter at www.twitter.com/411Boxing.