Hatton's Defeat Leaves 
Brit's Gutted & Silenced

By Oliver Smith
Photos: Naoki Fukuda
 

 

Floyd Mayweather destroyed the hopes and dreams of 20,000 brits Saturday night as he put on a masterful performance to KO Ricky Hatton in the tenth round. Mayweather put to bed any doubts that he is the best pound for pound fighter of his generation, with a devastating finish to the fight.
 

 

I cannot begin to describe the effect that the defeat of Hatton has done to alter the mood of the fans here in Vegas. Mayweather didn’t just beat Hatton, he beat every single Brit in that arena.
 

 

I have been covering the fight all week and have been constantly in and out of the MGM Grand Hotel. The atmosphere has been electric, charged by the beating of drums and the accompanying trumpets, backed by an army of chanting fans. An hour after the fight, the casino floor was empty, the flags had gone and the trumpets and drums had been silenced. The balloon that was the Hatton fans hadn’t been deflated it had been burst.
 

 

As for the fight, the opening round started at a frantic pace. Hatton’s intentions were quite obvious, as he charged Mayweather and piled on the pressure. Hatton caught Mayweather with a quick inside punch that nearly had him down as he stumbled back onto the ropes but Hatton couldn’t capitalize and Mayweather recovered.

 

Round 2 was a confusing one as referee Joe Cortez would not let the fight pickup any momentum. He continuously intervened and warned both fighters about their fighting, despite stating before the fight that he was going to let the fight flow and run its natural course. Hatton was still the aggressor though and probably had this round.

 

Round 3 was similar to the previous two. Hatton was applying the pressure, maybe a little too much though, and walked into a couple of Mayweathers jabs, one in which resulted in a cut to the right eye of Hatton.

 

Round 4 and 5 saw Mayweather looking more comfortable and he started connecting with some wicked straight rights. Both fighters were still fighting dirty and holding each other. Mayweather was using his elbows a lot at this point and you could sense that Hatton was becoming frustrated with Cortez’s lack of intervention.

 

Round 6 boiled over. Mayweather was still using his elbows and turned his back on Hatton who then hit him on the back of his head, resulting in a point being deducted for Hatton. Quite baffling as Mayweather hadn’t been deducted anything despite a number of warnings from Cortez about the use of his elbows.

 

Round 7 and Hatton was looking tired. He wasn’t applying as much pressure and Mayweather was picking Hatton off with much more ease.

 

Round 8 saw Mayweather connect with a straight right that hit Hatton on the top of his forehead, and had Mayweather not been in the way, Hatton would have hit the deck. It was a scary moment for Hatton, as he was really struggling.

 

Round 9 saw a burst of energy from the fans trying to cheer on Hatton as they knew that he needed to pull something out of the hat. Their support seemed to work as he came out strong but Mayweather was in full flow and had found his comfort zone with the jab that snapped Hatton’s head back every time he came forward.

 

Round 10 was the defining round of the fight. Mayweather quite simply showed his undoubted superiority, and hit Hatton with a left hook that sent him head first into the corner and onto the deck. Hatton recovered from the eight count but Mayweather hit him with a couple of jabs, and sent Hatton back down, from which he never recovered. Cortez waved his arms and Billy Graham threw in the towel.

 

The arena emptied like an emergency evacuation.

 

To see Hatton defeated in that manner ripped the guts out of all the fans here to see him, and everyone just seemed to hit a brick wall.

 

Roger Mayweather summed this fight up for me. He said in the press conference on Wednesday that we were all going to see the difference between a great fighter and a good fighter and I think that those words say everything about this fight.

 

The word ‘great’ gets thrown around too much and should be reserved for the most deserving and proven fighters. I think that with this performance, Pretty Boy Floyd can now without any doubt, class himself as one of the all time great pound for pound fighters.

 

After the fight Mayweather said that he should be judged on what he does inside of the ring and not outside, and like him or not, you have to appreciate those words after a performance like that. All you can do is hold your hands up and say that he truly is a great fighter.