Sunday 3 May 2009

Where Next for the Hitman?

After crawling to the bar last night to watch what was billed to be one of the fights of the century like many other hardcore madmen out there, I now wonder whether missing a sunny Sunday was worth it.
Everything looked set for a memorable showdown - Hatton looked in incredible shape, probably due to cutting the fry-ups down to just three a day and, although not the favorite, looked as though he was ready to give Manny a bit of a bruising. But no.
It took just two rounds for Pacquiao to take down one of the best boxers of my lifetime without hardly taking a blow, indeed the only thing the Hitman hit last night was the canvas. This was something I never expected to see and something that left me rather upset. Credit to Pacquiao must be given; the man was brutally clinical and blitzed through Hatton's defences like a hot knife through butter with some punishing blows to the noggin. He looked as surprised as me that he won so easily and was a very gracious fellow in his victory, fair play to him.
But what's next for the Hitman? After being on the end of two consecutive thrashings many are urging him to retire, and in all honesty I think he probably will. The fact of the matter is where can he go from here if he does continue? Hatton is just past his peak now and is extremely unlikely to improve, so getting pounded by Manny and Mayweather at this stage in his career bodes pretty badly for his future unfortunately.
On a brighter note, every cloud has a silver lining. Last night's came in the shape a boxer on the undercard, Joe Murray, who unanimously beat Missael Nunez earlier in the night. The featherweight showed fantastic potential, being tipped by Hatton himself to be the next big thing, and after having the pleasure of interviewing him recently I think he deserves every ounce of success he gets.
So was dragging myself out in the early hours of this morning a waste? Not for me. The opportunity to belt out renditions of "there's only one Ricky Hatton" with a 100 strong drunken rabble before and after the fight has restored my faith in the often fickle fans of sport - even more shocking to see Mancs not jumping on the Pacquiao bandwagon as soon as Hatton went down.

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