|
|
|||||||||||||||||
|
Ricky Fatton vs. Money Pacquiao? If It Makes Cents, Count On It
Over the past few days we have been hearing that Jr. Welter Champ Ricky Hatton relishes a fight with Jr. Light Champ Manny Pacquiao, but not much has come out of team Pacquiao on the matter. Early Monday morning Pound4Pound spoke to upper brass at Top Rank as well as one of Pacquiao's top advisor's. Both parties confirmed that a Hatton match up is a very distinct possibility, in fact the team Pacquiao member went as far as to say that, "plans are already on the drawing board", yes, that's a direct quote.
This news comes on the tail of a London Times report stating that Hatton has been on an eating and drinking binge since his first loss last month and is already terribly out of shape.
From the London Times report:
When Hatton vowed to move down to light-welterweight after his boxing lesson at the hands of Mayweather in December, many expected him to demonstrate some overdue self-control as he set out on the serious business of reviving his career. Instead he went to the Canary Islands and, according to reports, downed 57 pints, 17 vodka Red Bulls, 3 whisky chasers and a bottle of champagne. That these figures are unconfirmed is irrelevant - he is already beginning to look pitifully out of shape less than one month after his recent bout......“It couldn’t be more horrific what he eats,” he said. “Anything that’s bad, greasy, take-away or pies, he washes down with 12 to 15 pints of Guinness and Baileys chasers. He couldn’t do it any worse. ... His mum and dad can’t talk him out of it and his girlfriend Jennifer can’t...
The irony here is that if this proposed fight does go down Manny, who fought his first pro bout at 106 pounds, is going up in weight, and Hatton, who visits the 200 pound neighborhood in between bouts, now has to shed mega pounds just to make weight.
To add a double scoop of ice cream to that pie, Pacquiao is jumping right over the Lightweight division, namely Champ Juan “Baby Bull” Diaz, which would be a much more entertaining and close battle.
The real Reason every elite fighter steps into the ring these days is not for the belts & not for the Super battles. More and more top boxers only want to fight the big money fights, which are not necessarily the best fights. e.g. Calzaghe and Chad Dawson would be a much more exciting fight than with Bernard Hopkins vs Joe, and Manny and Juan Diaz would be a guaranteed barn burner. Oscar & Floyd have started this $$$ phenomenon and the prospect of mega millions has every elite boxer drooling.
Can Manny vs. Ricky be a good entertaining bout?
Possibly, but we doubt it.
Will a fight between these two fill a 100,000 seat stadium in either one of their homelands, and generate super PPV #'s?
For the boxing purist, unfortunately that answer is yes.
And so, after a year in which we saw Boxing make great strides at providing exciting match ups that fans could rally around, we appear to be entering a new era, where money dictates who fights whom, the fans be damned.
Pacquiao-Hatton could be the poster child for this new era. A fighter who began his career as a 106-pound flyweight, Pacquiao would be facing a 140 junior welterweight who walks around at 180 pounds, larded with fish 'n chips and Guinness.
It is an absurd match up, a circus act to bring in the suckers under the Big Tent for hefty PPV and box office money. Even more outlandish is that Oscar De La Hoya has actually said he would not rule out fighting Pacquiao.
Once again, the real losers here are the fans, who will get sucked in by the hype of a 24/7 reality series featuring Pacquiao and Hatton, which will be far more interesting that the actual mismatch in the ring. We've seen Hatton do his pub crawl, ordinary-guy-who-is-a-multimillionaire act, now we would get to watch Manny hang out in pool halls, bet at cock fights, and kiss hot movie stars on the set of his latest film.
Fighters no longer say they want to fight the best, or they want to win or unify belts. They say, "I want the big money fights."
Does the World really Await Manny Pacquiao fighting beer-swilling Ricky Hatton? Do we really want to be subjected to another 10,000 drunken Brits booing the National Anthem? We doubt it.
But from
the fighters to the managers and promoters, and finally to
the networks, the greater good of Boxing will always take a
back seat to the greater good of the Almighty Dollar. |
||||||||||||||||
