MANNY PACQUIAO vs RICKY HATTON

SATURDAY P.M. UPDATE:

On site at the MGM Grand and the air is heavy with expectation. I thought Ricky Hatton looked the bigger man on the scales on Friday afternoon but Manny Pacquiao, two pounds the lighter man at 138, looked the most relaxed I can remember him seeing for a big fight. Emanuel Steward, who will be doing expert analysis for the PPV commentary, gives Hatton a great chance and sees a full-distance fight with "lots of crisp exchanges". When the fighters get in the ring Hatton will have a "real-strength advantage of seven, eight pounds," Steward said. "That cannot be underestimated." My feelings on the fight are unchanged. I will be very surprised if this ends early and I think it will be a tremendous contest. Below is the preview as written on Thursday evening.

East meets West all the time in boxing but never in a bigger fight than the one in Las Vegas on Saturday when Filipino superstar Manny Pacquiao faces British everyman hero Ricky Hatton to decide who is the world’s best at 140 pounds.

This HBO PPV attraction at the MGM Grand should live up to all expectations. Pacquiao and Hatton are exciting fighters and it shouldn’t take very long before punches are being given and taken.

I had a few words over the phone with Pacquiao last week and he said that while he might start out using the ring and countering he will eventually start to go in and let his punches go “because that’s what the fans want to see”.

Pacquiao is low key when it comes to pre-fight comments. He doesn’t have a lot to say. Hatton is much more talkative. The Manchester fighter is always a good interview, and he expresses a total belief in his ability to win this fight.

While Pacquiao is the favourite, there are experienced boxing people who give Hatton a great chance — Hatton’s former trainer, Billy Graham, is one of them. Graham’s relationship with Hatton ended on a sad note, but he is in no doubt that the fighter he trained for so many years will win on Saturday.

Hatton is seen as the naturally bigger man. He has been boxing at junior welter his whole career, with a couple of fights at welterweight. His only loss was to the masterful Floyd Mayweather Jr., who would be a solid favourite over Pacquiao.

There was talk of Hatton having deteriorated as a fighter after the Mayweather KO loss and then a difficult win over a faded Juan Lazcano, but he looked revitalised last November when running over Paulie Malignaggi in Hatton’s first fight with his new trainer, Floyd Mayweather Sr.

Pacquiao, meanwhile, has been improving steadily over the years under the direction of his trainer Freddie Roach. Pacquiao has become a better boxer, smarter and more elusive, and he has added a stiff right jab and wicked right hook to the big left hand that he delivers with great velocity from his southpaw stance. He is considered the faster of the two fighters, perhaps the more versatile and probably the more destructive puncher. Hatton, however, will be the biggest, strongest man that Pacquiao has faced and if he can bully the Filipino to the ropes and hammer him to the body it is quite possible that we will see an upset unfolding.

Floyd Mayweather Sr. puts considerable emphasis on defence in his teaching, but he has worked on polishing up Hatton’s technique rather than trying to turn him into something he isn’t. A fierce, unrelenting attack will be the cornerstone of Hatton's strategy.

“I’m the bigger man and the stronger man and it would be foolish to get on my toes and jab and move with Manny,” Hatton said over the phone from Las Vegas. “I’m going to jump all over him, like I did with Paulie Malignaggi. All I did is just tidied up a little bit more technically with a better defence, a better jab, more head movement and setting up my attacks.”

Hatton believes that before bringing Mayweather on board he had fallen into bad habits, relying too much on aggression and physical and mental strength.

“A lot of people thought I was going to resort back to the old Ricky Hatton in the Malignaggi fight, and in the end I outjabbed him and I suppose outspeeded him,” Hatton said. “I only had seven weeks for the last fight with my new training team and you could see how much quicker I was, so with another training camp under my belt I should be even quicker. Ultimately, I think the size and the power thing will be a big factor in the fight, but I don’t think that’s all Manny has got to worry about with me, I think my boxing ability, my defence, my left jab and my hand speed is very much improved, and I think that’s going to be a big factor in the fight — and it could be an even bigger factor, because that’s something nobody’s expecting.

“I always had good boxing ability but sometimes I never really showed it, and I’m working with a team now that has brought it to the forefront a little bit more. I think a few performances recently were a bit rough and tumble, with not as much thought going into my technique as what there should have been, and I think that’s what we’ve done in the new camp really.

“The key was: ‘Is Floyd going to turn me into a boxer-mover?’ and I think everyone got their answer against Malignaggi. I was still as ferocious and aggressive as ever but just added a few little things here and there which I hadn’t used in recent years.

“There’s no doubt in my mind I’m going to win this fight. I’ve met Manny on a couple of occasions and he does not look physically as big as me, and unusually I have a height advantage, and I think that’s the first time I’ve had that in my whole career, and he doesn’t seem to have as big a frame as me. But to beat Manny Pacquiao is not just being about being big and strong, you’ve got to have all the other things as well, good speed yourself, a good left jab, a good game plan in your head, good tactics, and I’ve got all that as well, and ultimately the size factor is going to be massive bearing in mind that at 10 stone [140 pounds] I have trampled over a lot people.”

Hatton is right in that he just seems bigger-framed than Pacquiao. After all, it was only 14 months ago that Pacquiao was boxing as a 130-pounder. Pacquiao looked very strong as a 147-pounder when beating up Oscar De La Hoya in December, but if Saturday’s fight becomes a close-range war of attrition, Hatton could have the advantage.

Pacquiao’s footwork and hand speed, though, could make it tough for Hatton to get into position to punch without taking punishment. Hatton is tough, but if he keeps getting hit it will have a disorientating effect. However, if Hatton can slip punches, keep his head moving, and dart in to land his own shots, he can get right into the fight and perhaps win it.

As scintillating as Pacquiao looked against De La Hoya he was, of course, meeting a shell of a once outstanding fighter. De La Hoya had nothing that night. In his fight before this, Pacquiao looked superb, too, but he was able to enjoy target practice against the brave but plodding David Diaz.

In these fights Pacquiao was never really being challenged, but it will be a different story on Saturday. Hatton will be taking it to him, doing his best to harass him at every turn and trying to hurt him — and we don’t know how Pacquiao will react to getting hit by a 140-pound fighter.

I think that Pacquiao’s speed of punch will most likely make the difference. Even with improvement in the defence and punch-slipping areas, I think that Hatton is going to be getting hit on the way in. I am sure that Hatton will land some good punches himself — this is a two-sided fight — but on balance I can just see Pacquiao doing the greater degree of damage to win by TKO some time in the last three or four rounds. I hope to be at the weigh-in on Friday afternoon. Maybe I will notice something that gives me reason for second thoughts, but as of Thursday evening I am liking Pacquiao by late stoppage, although not with any great certainty.