Sunday, May 3, 2009

The Knockout

British light welterweight Ricky Hatton, KO'd in the second round by Filipino fighter Manny Pacquiao last night in Las Vegas.

I saw Hatton fight Juan Urango in Vegas in 2007. It looked like a sloppy fight to me -- I know little about boxing -- but Hatton won by decision and it was plain he was a bullish, straight-ahead fighter. His fan support was tremendous.

British fans sang again and again (and again) before and during that fight a song that begins "There's only one Ricky Hatton" and, peculiarly, borrows the tune of "Winter Wonderland." ("...Ricky Hatton" replaces "...Are you listening," if you see what I mean.) Hatton joked in the paper the next day that even he got a little tired of hearing it.

25,000 British Hatton fans made it to Vegas this weekend, and the MGM Grand seats only 17,000 total. The Filipino fans were equally boisterous:

To say that the over-enthused, over-caffeinated, over-adrenalized, over-everything throng of unswayable Manny Pacquiao and Rocky Hatton partisans were an animated bunch at a sold-out MGM Grand Garden arena on Saturday night would be like calling The Beatles a rock band or Gandhi a pretty good dude: such a description would certainly ring true, but it would fail to encapsulate the frothing-at-the-mouth fervor that defined this event.

Pacquiao dominated. No need to cry for Hatton: he made $8 million for the fight (and Pacquiao made $12 million). But it looks like the end for him.

(Photo credit: Mary Ann Owen / WENN.com)

Posted by Mr. Holznagel at 10:31 AM Comments (0) TrackBacks (0)