Mayweather vs. Hatton

[Erika]

"Pretty Boy" Floyd Mayweather will meet British icon and junior welterweight champion Ricky "The Hitman" Hatton on Saturday, December 8 for the 147-pound championship. With a combined record of 81-0, this is the biggest match-up of two undefeated welterweights since the record setting mega-fight between Oscar de la Hoya and Felix Trinidad in 1999.

Mayweather, 30, is 38-0 (24 KOs) and the reigning world welterweight champion. He is a six-time world champion in five weight divisions including super featherweight, lightweight, super lightweight, welterweight and super welterweight.

Hatton, 28, is 43-0 (31 KOs), and hails from Manchester, England. He is also a multi-division champion and universally recognized world junior welterweight champion.


HBO is running the Mayweather/Hatton 24/7 series right now...anyone have an thoughts on the outcome?

[Erika]

Is anyone ordering the fight? I was going to go to a party tonight at a friend's who is getting it, but I am too exhausted to bother :lol

I am not sure who it will be. I have a feeling that Hatton could upset Mayweather....I guess I'll wait to see it on HBO next weekend and save the $50!

[Dennis]

Mayweather by unanimous decision.

[Erika]

from ESPN:

Round 1

Mayweather circles, jabs. Hatton coming forward. Hatton mauls Mayweather in close. Good left from Mayweather!! Big left hook from Hatton staggers Mayweather. Lots of mauling in close. Good straight right from Floyd.
Kieran Mulvaney scores it: 10-9, Hatton
Darius Ortiz scores it: 10-9, Hatton

Round 2

Hatton comes out fast, landing right hands. Big left hook from Hatton. Hook from Mayweather. Uppercut and hook while holding from Hatton, and Cortez warns both fighters about roughhousing. Lovely straight right from Mayweather. Hooks from Hatton. More warnings from Cortez. Hatton chases Mayweather around ring with hooks. All Ricky at the moment.
Kieran Mulvaney scores it: 10-9, Hatton
Darius Ortiz scores it: 10-9, Mayweather

Round 3

Leaping left hook from Hatton. Right hand out of a clinch from Hatton. Mayweather trying to tie up Hatton when up close, but Ricky staying on him. Hatton is keeping Floyd pinned to the ropes, but now Floyd lands excellent right-left-right in center ring. Hatton has a cut above his right eye.
Kieran Mulvaney scores it: 10-9, Hatton
Darius Ortiz scores it: 10-9, Mayweather

Round 4

Mayweather seems like he has been able to get just a bit more distance, and as a result is landing some crisp punches. Good right from Floyd, and then another combo explodes off Ricky's jaw. Ricky is coming forward but not geting off many ounches at the moment. Looks like Floyd has started to figure him out.
Kieran Mulvaney scores it: 10-9, Mayweather
Darius Ortiz scores it: 10-9, Mayweather


Round 5

Hatton closing the distance again and smothering Mayweather. As soon as a bit of distance opens up, Mayweather lands a short right hand. Hatton goes back to swarming him along the ropes, but then Mayweatgher lands a two-punch combination in ring center. Honestly, I found that a relatively tough round to score as Hattonwas more aggressive, but Floyd's punches were sharper. I'm going with Ricky.
Kieran Mulvaney scores it: 10-9, Hatton
Darius Ortiz scores it: 10-9, Hatton

Round 6

Mayweather is jabbing to the body. Nice left from Mayweather and a short right, as Hatton swarms him. Hatton hits Mayweather behnd the head and pushes him through the ropes and Cortez deducts a point. Hatton turns around and sticks his rear toward Floyd. Hatton coming forward with even more aggresion now, but Floyd catches hm coming in a couple of times. Crowd goes nuts when Floyd hits Ricky in the back of the head and Cortez doesn't do anything.
Kieran Mulvaney scores it: 10-8, Mayweather
Darius Ortiz scores it: 10-8, Mayweather

[Erika]

Looks like ESPN's guys have it at Hatton 2 rounds - Mayweather 3 and 1 split????

This is going to be a good fight to watch I think!

[Erika]

From ESPN

Round 7

A lot of rough, tough inside stuff, as the two work in close. Mayweather's tight defense is negating some of Hatton's swarming offense. As soon as there is a gap between them, Mayweather lands some sharp punches and a good sequence of rights and lefts puntuates the round and wins it for Floyd.
Kieran Mulvaney scores it: 10-9, Mayweather
Darius Ortiz scores it: 10-9, Hatton

Round 8

Mayweather digging right hands to the body in close. Then a good right and a straight right that buckles Ricky's knees. Still Ricky keeps on coming. Right hand from Hatton. Again, Floyd jabs to the body. Lefts and rights from Floyd and Ricky is badly hurt. Floyd unloads in the corner, but back comes Haton, although Floyd blocks his punches.
Kieran Mulvaney scores it: 10-9, Mayweather
Darius Ortiz scores it: 10-9, Mayweather

[Erika]

ESPN.com:

Round 9

Hatton lands a good left out of a clinch that catches Floyd's attention. Mayweather circling away and popping Ricky with a couole of sharp jabs. Hatton continues to swarm Mayweather, but most of the effective punches are Floyd's. Another pair of jabs snaps back Hatton's head. Another short hook from Mayweather. Left-right to the chin, and then another right from Mayweather. Floyd apears to be in a groove and Hatton is not able to disrupt it at all right now.
Kieran Mulvaney scores it: 10-9, Mayweather
Darius Ortiz scores it: 10-9, Mayweather

Round 10

Boy, Hatton is tough. He just keeps on coming forward. Hge hook from Mayweather and Hatton is down! Another big hook. Lefts and rihts on the ropes, and Cortez waves it off as Hatton goes down again. Floyd Mayweather has just knocked out Ricky Hatton in the 10th round.

[Erika]

Mayweather Stops Hatton in 10th

By TIM DAHLBERG – 4 hours ago
LAS VEGAS (AP) — Floyd Mayweather Jr. didn't need to dance to beat Ricky Hatton. His fists proved a lot more potent than his feet.

Mayweather remained unbeaten Saturday night and retained his claim to being the best pound-for-pound fighter in the world by stopping Hatton in the 10th round of a brawl that featured none of the fancy footwork the American has shown in the ring and on reality TV.

Hatton wouldn't let Mayweather move, but it didn't matter as Mayweather used precision punches to wear down the challenger for his 147-round crown. Hatton kept trying to get inside and score points, but Mayweather had an answer for everything he did.

The end came after Mayweather landed a crushing left hook that dropped Hatton on his back in Mayweather's corner. Hatton got up at the count of eight, but Mayweather almost immediately got him on the ropes and landed another flurry of punches to the head.

Hatton went down almost on a delayed reaction, while at the same time referee Joe Cortez moved in to stop the fight and Hatton's corner threw in the towel at 1:35 of the round.

It was the first loss for Hatton, a brawler from Manchester, England, who did his best to do what no other fighter had ever done and break down Mayweather's defenses. It was clear from the early rounds, though, that Hatton would have trouble doing that. Mayweather, fighting for the first time since beating Oscar De La Hoya in May, was able to pile up points and seemed to be cruising for an easy decision win when he shot out the left hook that was the beginning of the end for Hatton.

"I knew it was going to be tough," Mayweather said. "That's why I didn't do anything halfway. He was definitely the toughest competitor I've ever faced."

Mayweather (39-0) was ahead 89-81 on two ringside scorecards and 88-82 when he scored the thundering punches that both stopped Hatton and answered critics who said he was a boring fighter who fought defensively and rarely took any chances when it counted.

It was Mayweather's hometown, but Hatton's crowd at the MGM Grand hotel arena. A brass band played in the upper deck, among thousands of British fans who packed the arena and needed little urging to stand up with beers in hand to sing "There's only one Ricky Hatton" to the tune of "Winter Wonderland."

David Beckham sat ringside in the arena just down the street from where his wife was performing at the Mandalay Bay on the Spice Girls reunion tour. Those unlucky enough to not get tickets going for thousands of dollars watched it on closed circuit at several Strip hotels, while back home some 350,000 British homes were expected to spend about $30 for a pay-per-view broadcast that began about 5 a.m. in London.

Mayweather countered with a little star power himself. He was joined by fellow "Dancing With the Stars" competitors Mark Cuban, Wayne Newton and Helio Castroneves on his walk to the ring, an appearance that was roundly booed by most of the crowd, which also nearly drowned out with boos and whistles the pre-fight national anthem by Tyrese Gibson.

Unfortunately for Hatton, their vocal support wasn't much help in the ring. There, Mayweather held all the advantages, and he gave Hatton a beating from the eighth round on when he caught him with a huge right hand and followed it with a series of head punches.

"I wanted to punch with power," Mayweather said. "A couple of fights ago I gave my fans a dud, so I wanted to come back and give my fans a great fight."
Hatton was on his back in the neutral corner for about 15 seconds after being knocked out, but got up and even took a microphone to thank his fans for coming.

"I felt really big and really strong, but I left myself open," Hatton said. "He's better inside than what I thought with all the elbows, shoulders and forearms he used."

Hatton was cut over his right eye in the third round and though the cut didn't bleed much he said it affected him mentally and that he wasn't the same after that.

"I thought I was doing well in the fight until then," Hatton said. "I don't think he was the hardest puncher tonight, but he was more clever than I expected."

Mayweather's dominance was shown by ringside punching statistics that showed he landed 129 of 329 punches to 63 of 372 for Hatton. Even more telling was that Mayweather outlanded Hatton 78 to 26 over last five rounds, including a 32-6 margin in the eighth round.
Hatton was undefeated, just like Mayweather, but he had not fought the same caliber of fighters and many questioned how he would be able to get inside the vaunted defenses of a 30-year-old who has spent his entire life learning the fine art of boxing. Oddsmakers made him a decided underdog, though by fight time there was enough money on Hatton to bring Mayweather down to a 2-1 favorite.

The fight was lucrative for both. Mayweather was guaranteed $11 million plus a slice of any pay-per-view profits, while Hatton had a $6 million guarantee.

Hatton (43-1) was also moving up in weight, fighting at 147 pounds for only the second time, and fighting an opponent who was taller and had a reach advantage over him. If that wasn't enough, Mayweather was universally regarded as both the best defensive fighter in the world and the best pound-for-pound fighter.

Hatton's only real chance before the 16,700 who sang his praises from the opening bell, was to turn the fight into a nonstop brawl, and he did his best to do just that. He was always on the attack, trying to bully Mayweather into corners and against the ropes where he would have a better chance landing inside punches.

The fight was fought through a succession of clinches and emotions wore raw as the rounds added up. In the sixth round, Hatton threw Mayweather against the ropes and pushed his head between the second and third ropes, prompting Cortez to take a point away from the challenger.
Before the action resumed, Hatton showed his disgust by turning his back to Mayweather and sticking out his rear end.

Earlier, Cortez stopped the fight twice to lecture both boxers about using headlocks, elbows and punches behind the head in a mostly futile effort to turn the fight into some kind of a boxing contest.
Source: AP

[Rob]

legit fight

[Erika]

There were CRAZY amounts of celebs at this fight - Angelina/Brad - Gwen Steffani - Denzel Washington - Jeremy Piven --- the list goes on and on.

Mayweather had Wayne Newton, Mark Cuban and Helio Castroneves come in with him and carry his belts :rofl HILARIOUS! DWTS reunion!