Recalling a classic: Floyd ‘Pretty Boy’ Mayweather vs. Ricky ‘Hitman’ Hatton – Boxing
Floyd Mayweather versus Ricky Hatton, which was billed as Undefeated, is a boxing match that is still fresh in the minds of many out there. This historic fight, which Mayweather won via a tenth-round TKO, was held back in December 2007 at the MGM Grand Arena
in Las Vegas, Nevada with Mayweather’s World Boxing Council and The Ring welterweight titles on the line.
This boxing match which took years in its making had an enormous hype and excitement ahead of it because both boxers were undefeated when they took on each other. Moreover, the British media had promoted the bout in such a way that it looked more like something
of a Britain against America fight as a result to which Mayweather decided to enter the ring to Bruce Springsteen’s ‘Born in the U.S.A.’ song.
It was fully packed arena since both boxers had an army of fans to support them. Meanwhile, celebrities such as Denzel Washington, Bruce Willis, Angelina Jolie, Brad Pitt, Will Ferrell, Gwen Stefani and Jude Law along with football star David Beckham were
also present in the arena to watch this great match.
When these two warriors met Ricky Hatton, who weighed in at 145 lbs, was undefeated in all of his 43 professional fights, with 31 of his wins coming by the way of a knockout and Mayweather, who weighed in at 147 lbs, on the same note held a perfect record
of winning all of his 38 professional fights, with 24 of his wins coming by the way of a knockout.
Hatton fans repeatedly booed Mayweather upon his entrance, which resulted in a large post-fight criticism for them.
However, when the fight started Hatton was the aggressor. Hatton caught Mayweather with a left hand jab in the first round which made his British fans go nuts. Hatton also competed well with the American in the following second round before Mayweather, who
was looking uncomfortable and under pressure, somehow found a way to land a vicious right hand on his opponent’s face in the third round that cut Hatton above the right eye.
Nevertheless, both fighters did were toe-to-toe until Hatton was docked a point by referee Joe Cortez for hitting Mayweather behind the head in the sixth round. Hatton afterwards became angry at the referee as he believed his punches didn’t make any contact
with his opponents head.
Hatton’s aggression made him lose his cool and Mayweather sensed the exhaustion of Hatton soon as a result to which he started relying on his counterpunching abilities. Mayweather from that point onwards looked in total control of the fight and when the
opportunity presented itself in the 10th round, Mayweather unleashed a rocking left hook on Hatton’s face which forced the Brit to crash down on the canvas.
Though Hatton got up, he did not look as he was in his senses due to which the officiating referee stopped the fight and awarded a TKO win for Mayweather, who at time was considered as the best pound-for-pound fighter in the world.
The undefeated American legend, Mayweather, who is now a five-division world champion and the current World Boxing Council World Welterweight Champion, currently holds an incredible record of winning all of his 42 professional fights, with 26 of his wins
coming by the way of a knockout.
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