Hatton/Mayweather fight will be a good one

By Andrew Neumann
Collegian Staff
December 5, 2007

Flashy, arrogant African-American champion fights working-class white challenger who is given very little shot to win.

That one sentence sums up the plot of 1976’s Rocky. It is one of the most famous movies of all time which enjoys exalted status in this city. That movie helped turn a younger generation on to the sport of boxing. Now, however, that same line applies to a real-life fight that will be taking place this Saturday night. It seems dubious that any one fight could turn this generation into a boxing-crazy one, simply because people our age don’t seem to be all that passionate about the sport.

They would be if they knew about Ricky Hatton.

Hatton hails from Manchester, a working class suburb of London. Despite an immaculate 43-0 record, he still lives and trains with the same coach who has been preparing him since he was a little kid. Like most British stars, Hatton has developed a loyal fan base with his countrymen who follow him to Las Vegas for his big fights. These fans often make venues like Caesar’s Palace resemble Wembley Stadium with their soccer-style chants, the most famous of which is “Walking in a Hatton Wonderland,” to the tune of the famous Christmas carol.

But what really makes Hatton an endearing guy is the way he conducts himself. His official nickname is the Hitman, but he’s got another one: Ricky Fatton. They call him Ricky Fatton because he is known to gain an excess of 30 pounds between fights by drinking beer and eating anything in sight. He comes off as a very funny and down-to-earth guy in all the interviews he gives. It was one of these interviews, in fact, that landed Hatton the biggest fight of his career. After dispatching of Jose Luis Castillo in June, he was asked about Floyd Mayweather, Jr. His response was vintage Hatton: “What round was this, four? I think you saw more action in these four rounds than Floyd’s had in his entire career.”

Enter Floyd Mayweather, Jr. 38-0, a champion in an unprecedented five different weight classes. Mayweather was watching the fight when Hatton said that. He turned to his manager and said “Make the f---ing fight happen.”

Mayweather is unlike Hatton in basically every way. He lives and trains in Las Vegas. He is eager to tell you how much his watch and jewelry cost. He has few ardent supporters, save for those who travel in his ever-growing entourage. He regards Hatton as not being on his level.

He is, however, the best boxer in the world. He may be the best boxer in the last 40 years, and that includes Mohammed Ali. The reason his fights don’t have much action in them is because he is so good that he can do just enough to win rounds and not have to get hit hard. He rarely gets in close and rarely seems flustered. He possesses what may be the quickest hands a boxer has ever had.

That said, he will enter the ring Saturday night in Vegas to a chorus of boos. Not all of the boos will be from Brits, either. But to classify this as a simple battle of good versus evil would not be fair to either man. Instead, this fight is more representative of two different theories on life. Mayweather comes from a broken home and has no contact with his father, who is a legendary boxing trainer. He wears the clothes and the jewelry and flashes the cash because he knows the secret truth that makes things like professional wrestling great theater: more people will buy tickets to see the villain lose than to see the hero win. Mayweather is a multi-millionaire based on this principal.

People who support Mayweather often flock to him because he is secure enough in his own character to not care whether most people like him or not. People who support Hatton are happy that there is a star who is gracious and legitimately seems to appreciate the fans. There is also the unspoken element that sells a fight to boxing fans: race. The fact that a white man is fighting a black man cannot be dismissed as irrelevant. This is not bigotry, but the last vestige of old dividing lines that still remain in the world’s oldest organized sport.

Saturday night, when the greatest fighter in the world steps into the ring with a man who has a shot to actually start to bring people back to the sport, take notice. This fight is about more than the WBC Welterweight Championship. It has all the elements of a classic old fight, minus one: a rabid fan base in America. This fight could be the one that begins to establish that again.

neumanna1@lasalle.edu