Why Ricky Hatton can beat Manny Pacquiao

Are we still intoxicated over Manny Pacquiao's demolition of Oscar De La Hoya? Probably. Was it a great performance? Yes. Was it the kind of performance that should elevate Pacquiao to the level of Sugar Ray Robinson? No.

Maybe, it was just time. It was time for Oscar to get spanked and Pacquiao was in the right place. In boxing, fighters get old fast. And that's what happened to Oscar. He got old all at once and Manny did a wonderful job exploiting it.

But this is what Manny will have in front of him when he faces Ricky Hatton -- a young, strong, relentless fighter. Kind of like himself, right? The difference is that Hatton is naturally bigger. I expect to see two guys going toe-to-toe in this fight. Two guys who have always been crowd-pleasing fighters. After you wash away all the talk from their respective trainers about how much better their defense has gotten and how much better they've become at the art of boxing, they are still the same fighters. When the bell rings, they will fight and they will fight hard. They throw caution to the wind. It's like Hatton has said, "Me and Manny don't exactly tip-toe around the ring."

It's a dangerous fight for Pacquiao. The one thing he can't change is that he is physically, the smaller guy, and when all else is equal, the victory usually goes to the bigger guy. It's going to be a great fight and one that Hatton can certainly win.

Source: http://weblogs.newsday.com/sports/boxing/blog/2009/04/why_ricky_hatton_can_beat_mann.html

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