MANNY PACQUIAO KO2 RICKY HATTON

Walking out of the MGM Grand Garden Arena in Las Vegas on Saturday night I still couldn’t quite take in what I had just witnessed. Yes, I picked Manny Pacquiao over Ricky Hatton, but I wasn't completely sure and I definitely never thought he would destroy him in two rounds.

“I still can’t believe the fight is over,” Lee Samuels, the veteran publicist for Bob Arum’s Top Rank Promotions, said as we inched our way through the milling throng to get to the post-fight press conference.

I could hardly believe it, either.

This looked like being a competitive match, and while Pacquiao was the favourite I don’t think that very many people would have expected a two-round blowout.

Hatton never had a chance to get into the fight. Chin in the air, the British fighter lunged straight into the waiting cannon fire. I was surprised that Hatton made it out of the first round, when he was dropped twice.

There was no coming back from Pacquiao’s final big punch, though. The booming left hand from the Filipino's southpaw style that dropped Hatton flat on his back produced one of the most vivid one-punch finishes I have ever seen.

I am now thinking that Pacquiao might be one of the all-time greats, a world champion at flyweight, junior featherweight, junior lightweight and lightweight and now the world’s best at junior welter.

Promoter Arum said afterwards that in all his years in boxing he has never seen anyone with the combination of speed and explosiveness that Pacquiao possesses. Trainer Freddie Roach talked of bouts against Miguel Cotto or Shane Mosley if the outstanding 147-pounders would come down in weight a little, although the preferred opponent would have been Floyd Mayweather Jr. had he not decided to meet Juan Manuel Marquez instead.

The next opponent will not be named until Pacquiao has completed a film in the Philippines, after which the fighter and trainer Roach will sit down with Arum to look at potential matches. Roach doesn’t want Pacquiao to be out of the ring for too long. “An active fighter is a good fighter,” he said.

Whoever Pacquiao meets, it will be a major event. Pacquiao’s star power shines even brighter after Saturday night.

Hatton proved to be the perfect opponent. He was made for Manny. It was one of the worst annihilations ever of a top-level British boxer abroad.

Pacquiao’s last five fights had all lasted at least into the eighth round, suggesting a longish night’s work on Saturday.

Hatton, though, was outclassed and then brutally taken out. The defensive improvements we were led to believe we would see from Hatton were non-existent. He tried to attack but he couldn’t find Pacquiao with much of anything, and all the while he was getting hit and hurt.

To make matters worse for Hatton, it seemed that Pacquiao was actually punching harder than he has ever punched, although some had suspected that Hatton’s durability has been diminishing.

Was Hatton that bad or Pacquiao that good? Well, to be cruelly honest, Hatton didn't seem to have a clue, but Pacquiao amazingly appeared to move to another level.

Perhaps it all came down to one man's style making him the perfect foil for his opponent. A good fighter was made to look like an amateur by a boxer who is not just exceptional but borderline phenomenal.

I found myself feeling sorry for Hatton, and a bit embarrassed for him, too, because Pacquiao was punishing him so easily. Pacquiao was getting out of the way of Hatton’s hopeful rushes and then hammering him. Hatton probably didn’t know whether he was coming or going, and the way he crashed in the second round was scary to behold.

Whenever displays of devastating punching are discussed, this one will surely rank near the top.