PACQUIAO VS. HATTON: IT?S A DEAL!
By Maloney L. Samaco
PhilBoxing.com
Sat, 24 Jan 2009
Manny Pacquiao reportedly has finally signed the deal to fight Ricky Hatton on May 2, 2009 at the MGM Grand in Las Vegas, Nevada. Manny accepted the slight advantage in the sharing of the PPV proceeds at 52-48 with a P12 million guarantee. The statesmanlike value in Manny has finally surfaced just to satisfy millions and millions of boxing fans worldwide who would want to see the number one pound-for-pound king slug it out with the British boxing idol.
Top Rank?s Bob Arum and Golden Boy?s Richard Schaefer allegedly agreed on a 50-50 sharing scheme without consulting the Filipino boxing hero. This irritated Manny?s camp as he was not conferred with the even split. Manny just wanted some respect, he being the biggest draw in boxing after the convincing win over Oscar de la Hoya.
Hatton (45-1, 32 KOs), the Ring Magazine and International Boxing Organization (IBO) world junior welterweight champion, would defend his titles against Pacquiao (48-3-2, 36 KOs), now without a title, but the world?s number one boxer in all categories by the authoritative Ring Magazine ranking.
Hatton, who last defended his title with an 11th-round TKO of Paulie Malignaggi on November 22 of last year, tasted defeat only on the hands of Floyd Mayweather, Jr. on December 8, 2007. The fight ended in the 10th round when Mayweather rocked Hatton with a left hook and knocked the challenger down.
Hatton was able to get up, but Mayweather rained punches on him. Mayweather unleashed another left hook, followed by a straight right and another left hook that wobbled Hatton. The referee stopped the fight with 1:35 to go in that round before more harm would be inflected on the Briton. When the bout was stopped, Pretty Boy was very much ahead on the scorecards, 89-81 twice, and 88-82.
Talks on a Pacquiao-Hatton fight surfaced while he was preparing for the WBC lightweight championship bout with David Diaz. There were rumors circulating that Hatton will be the next foe after Diaz. But the Dream Match came along the way, and Manny has beaten the favored Golden Boy.
Talks on the Hatton fight was revived after the December 6 de la Hoya conquest and now every thing is on for the fine tuning of the negotiations. Most boxing experts this time predicted an easy Pacman win, unlike in the Dream Match where almost every sportswriter in America picked Golden Boy to prevail.
The Hitman will be on his biggest paycheck of his storied boxing career and so is Pacquiao. It is considered as the biggest boxing event in 2009, if the Pacquiao-Mayweather tussle will not push through. But Manny should not be too complacent, as Mayweather said, "Ricky Hatton is probably one of toughest competitors I've faced. I hit him with some big ones but he kept coming and I can see why they call him the 'Hitman'."
Click here to view a list of other articles written by Maloney L. Samaco.
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