Manny Pacquiao takes the brunt of a new documentary attempting to explain why Ricky Hatton suffered a devastating knockout at the hands of a boxing legend.
In 2009, eighteen months after Floyd Mayweather inflicted a first defeat on Hatton, Pacquiao was seen as a redemption fight for the Manchester man.
Being smaller than “The Hitman” but coming down in weight after defeating Oscar De La Hoya in his previous fight, Pacquiao was targeted by Hatton’s then-promoter Golden Boy.
Roberto Diaz, speaking as part of a new Sky documentary called “Hatton,” revealed that they saw Pacquiao as the ideal opponent for the Briton.
But everything went wrong when Pacquiao was too strong and held far too much speed for Hatton. In a nutshell, the Filipino star scored one of the most harrowing KO’s in Las Vegas history on the night.
Hatton lay prone on the canvas, flat on his back. He needed medical attention and was undoubtedly knocked out longer than thirty seconds before he knew where he was.
Manny Pacquiao KOs Ricky Hatton
That victory is seen as one of Pacquiao’s most excellent to date. He annihilated a fighter Mayweather took ten rounds to deal with in 2007.
Now, in a documentary charting Hatton’s mental issues, drinking at the time, and drug taking in later life, the Pacquiao win is diminished far more than any other topic.
In the film, Hatton’s father wants to pull his son out of the fight. Ray Hatton says Ricky wasn’t mentally prepared. But at the time, the consensus was there was too much money on the table even to consider it.
So what the documentary tries to imply is that Hatton went into the Pacquiao not ready to fight. That only got beaten so badly because he wasn’t supposed to be in the ring.
The whole point raised is an insult to Pacquiao. The eight-weight superstar demolished and exposed Hatton on the night at the MGM Grand. Any attempt to spoil that triumph years later seems like a subtraction from Pacquiao’s legacy.
For the Mayweather loss, there was no mention of problems. Even the fact Hatton won two fights after facing Floyd wasn’t mentioned. The story flew straight from being stopped by Mayweather to mental issues to Pacquiao.
The viewing was skewed towards blame and not tipping any caps to Pacquiao winning fair and square.
Trained by one of the best teams around, Hatton was on a two-fight winning streak. The truth is he just ran into a juggernaut he would never defeat.
“I was champion four times over, but I consider myself a failure. It wasn’t supposed to end this way.” – Ricky Hatton in Sky Documentary ‘Hatton.’ Available now.
The views expressed in this article are the opinions of experienced boxing writer Phil Jay.
