Boxing Classic Manny Pacquiao Vs Ricky Hatton

You know, I'm the best junior welterweight in the world. He's the best pound-for-pound fighter in the world. It will be a historic fight. Because Ricky Hart like to keep on punching and fighting toe-to-toe. I want that. Manny Pacquiao has no equal in the ring. Driven by a fury first fueled in the poverty of an archipelago a world away. Fury that has stoked an unprecedented ascent up the scale. One of the most vicious finishers in the sport. Highlighted by the annihilation that retired the world's best-known fighter. Manny Pacquiao has beaten Oscar De La Hoya. But Ricky Hatton has yet to cede ground to anyone at 140 pounds. A blue-collar brawler who relentlessly stalks his prey. An English hero still haunted by the one punishing imperfection on his resume. Faced with a self-reckoning, Hatton turned to the unlikeliest of characters to help him retool. The father of his conqueror. A defensive mastermind. Outspoken and without a trace of self-doubt. I know he's the better fighter in the belt. Much greater trainer than the fetish and joke coach wrote. The partnership they'll oppose spans nearly a decade. A ring educator of the most elemental kind. And the one-time one-dimensional pupil. He's now armed with a full mastery of the sweet science. He has power in both hands. He knows how to box. He's a complete fighter now. Fighters from opposite sides of the world. With polar opposites in each corner. Fighting for a spot at the summit of their sport. Manny Pacquiao. Ricky Hatton. The most anticipated fight of 2009 is next. So it's finally time for our main event. Manny Pacquiao against Ricky Hatton. Pacquiao's speed, agility, and apparent ability to move up and down among weight levels with ease. Against the rough-and-tumble, face-first fighting style of Hatton. Will Hatton have enough greater strength and size to knock out or outpoint Pacquiao? We are about to find out. Pacquiao versus Hatton is being brought to you by... MGM Grand, the city of entertainment in Las Vegas. Rockstar Energy Drink. Party like a rock star. And by HBO Pay-Per-View. The best in pay-per-view entertainment. Brought to you by HBO. One popular journal stated, it won't be a celebrity-studded crowd. Oh, really? Well, how about Jack Nicholson? The star of Entourage. Jeremy Pivitt. Denzel Washington in his New York Yankee cap. Cedric the Entertainer. Nearby Cedric, Mariah Carey with her group. Including husband Nick Cannon. P. Diddy at ringside tonight. And also, Jay-Z. So the music world and the movie world well-represented here. Now quickly, let's take a look at the 140-pound weight class, where Ricky Hatton reflects the organizational nonsense of governing bodies and belts. The best known of the belt-holding fighters, Timothy Bradley, one governing fighter, a body stripped him a couple of weeks ago. The other two fighters, Kotelnik and Urango, still have belts. Bradley has one, too. But the really good fighters, the best fighters in the picture, are Ricky Hatton, who's still the linear champion of the 140-pound weight class. Manny Pacquiao, who can become the linear champion by winning the fight. Floyd Mayweather, who is a potential targeted opponent for both of them, and against whom a fight would probably have to take place at a catch weight somewhere between 140 and 147. Juan Manuel Marquez, who's never fought against above 135, but who has now accepted an assignment to fight Mayweather somewhere above 140 later this summer. And if he wins that fight, could conceivably fight in the future in this weight division. Larry Merchant, as you've often said, there are some big questions to be answered and some answers to be questioned. What are the biggest? Jim, first, can Manny Pacquiao live up to the flattery that he's this generation's Henry Armstrong, a greatest among greatest? Can Ricky Hatton find a way to neutralize Pacquiao's lightning left hand to make a fight of it that can live up to this raucous party? And is this fight between champions from island nations at the end of great oceans coming to fight in America mean that boxing in the U.S. now is officially a global affair? In an hour, we'll have some answers and then some more questions, Jim. What a crowd. What an amazing audience, as these two fighters get ready to fight before their rabid followings. Emmanuel, before I talk to you about the fight, has any fighter in the sport ever had a following quite like Ricky Hatton's? No, no, there's never been a fight that I know of, probably, the way that Ricky... He's an everyday guy. I fell in love when I was on a speaker tour about three years ago, and he came over and took over the tour with me. I just love him. He's an everyday guy. You relate to him. And he gives his best, and regardless of what happens, he never complains. All right. The fight has been cast by most experts as a battle between Pacquiao's speed, fluidity, and skill, and Hatton's greater size and strength. Is there more to it than that? Well, I think there's a little bit more to it, but the size and strength does mean a lot. The fact that Ricky Hatton has been fighting at 140 pounds since the first day that he fought, which I think was about 12 years ago when he started off his career. And he's been at that level. Even though Pacquiao was fighting at 106 when he started, he was a young kid growing up. But Ricky's used to fighting stronger guys, bigger guys, and natural strength. I think he still is about a 5-pound bigger person. But the power of Pacquiao may neutralize all of that. I think the biggest thing that's been underestimated is Ricky Hatton's speed. I think he has speed himself. Unfortunately, his greatest signature fight he lost, and that was to Mayweather. And the greatest signature fight Pacquiao had, he looked sensational beating Oscar De La Hoya. And I think if we would balance out other things, the fact that Oscar was small-lugged comparatively, not as healthy, and you get the gifted talent of Mayweather plus the physical size really neutralizes that. So I think it's about a toss-up to me. Several times in recent years, we've told you these two styles conspire in such a way that there's almost no chance this won't be a great fight. There's almost no chance this won't be a great fight. Let's go to Michael Buffer now for pre-fight pageantry. Ladies and gentlemen, at this time, would everyone please rise for three national anthems. First, here to sing the national anthem of the Philippines, please welcome Martin Nievera. ♪ Bayang magiging ♪ ♪ Pelas ng sinangang ang puso ♪ ♪ Sa dipin mo'y umuhin ♪ ♪ Sa manggulungi ka pasisiin ♪ ♪ Sa nagat ang bundok, sa simoyan, sa langit mong bukaw ♪ ♪ May di lang ang tula at awit sa paglayang minamahal ♪ ♪ Kislam ng wagtawag mo'y tagumpay na nagniningning ♪ ♪ Ang bituin at araw niya kailangang may di magdididim ♪ ♪ Lupa ng araw na lahat ipansinta, buhay ay lahit sa piling mo ♪ ♪ At di kaya na pag may mang aapi, ang mamatay na sa'yo! ♪ Now, ladies and gentlemen, here to sing God Save the Queen, Sir Tom Jones. ♪ God save our gracious Queen ♪ ♪ Long live our noble Queen ♪ ♪ God save our Queen ♪ ♪ Send her victorious, happy and glorious ♪ ♪ Long to reign over us ♪ ♪ God save our Queen ♪ Now, ladies and gentlemen, please remain standing. Gentlemen, remove your caps. Here to sing the national anthem of the United States of America, please welcome Jazmine Villegas. ♪ God save the Queen you see by the dawn's early light ♪ ♪ What so proudly we hailed at the twilight's last gleaming ♪ ♪ Whose broad stripes and bright stars through the perilous fight ♪ ♪ O'er the ramparts we watched were so gallantly streaming? ♪ ♪ And the rocket's red glare, the bombs bursting in air ♪ ♪ Gave proof through the night that our flag was still there ♪ ♪ Oh, say, does that star-spangled banner yet wave ♪ ♪ O'er the land of the free and the home of the brave? ♪ Jim. Tail of the take for Maddie Pacquiao versus Ricky Hatton. You can see that they are even numerically in age. Hatton just a little bit older than Pacquiao. A 1-inch height advantage to the Filipino fighter who is regarded by many as the smaller man. Arm-length advantage also to Pacquiao by 1-inch measured from the armpit to the end of the fist. Hatton weighed in right on the 140-pound weight limit, so familiar to him throughout his entire career. Pacquiao was 2 pounds under at 138 tonight unofficially. Pacquiao goes up 10 pounds to 148. Hatton goes up 12 pounds to 152 unofficially. A 4-round weight advantage in the ring for Ricky Hatton. Rules of the belt with our unofficial ringside scorer, Harold Lederman. To Maddie Pacquiao. Now, Ricky Hatton's fight is scheduled for 12 rounds using the unified rules of the Association of Boxing Commissions. There is no three-knockdown rule. Only the referee can stop the fight. Case in point is caused by an accidental headbutt. We go to the scorecards. If the four rounds have been completed, and you cannot be saved by the bell in any round, including the 12th and final round. Jim. Yeah, Jim, something unusual. Ricky Hatton, the long-time junior welterweight champion, still the linear champion, entitled to walk out second, which has always been considered a psychological sign of status, elected to come out first. And when I asked him about it just a little while ago, he said, Maddie Pacquiao is pound for pound the best in the world. That's what I'm fighting for, and I consider myself the challenger for that title. Never heard anything like that. Yeah, even though he holds officially the world title. That's a lot of humbleness on his part. Well, it also goes to show you that Ricky Hatton is a brilliant marketer who understands how to cast the stakes here in the highest possible regions and how to make the fight seem the most important it can possibly seem. Ricky Hatton knows how to attract fans. That's 100% clear. And incidentally, there was almost an outburst during the national anthem when his picture appeared on the big monitor in the arena. And here he comes. They say he's never seen a salad. That's why he's fat. Aren't we accustomed to hearing Blue Moon at this point and the frequent tribute to Hatton's father's background with the Manchester City soccer team? This entrance has been changed up. Another change-up. Tonight he's here for you. And his fans don't seem to know exactly how to react. They're waiting for Blue Moon. He had all that sailing salad. In his last performance here against Pauly Malignaggi, he says that he showed the improved boxing skills provided by trainer Floyd Mayweather. And said that he returned to the scene of the crime when he rushed to Mayweather to get rid of the evidence. One question surrounding tonight's bout. Will he actually try to box, or will he throw himself at Pacquiao and try to establish physical advantages early? And now here comes Blue Moon. Hatton's crowd relatively reserved tonight. Seemingly thrown off a little bit by him entering first and the absence of Blue Moon, except as a bit of an encore. And now the Filipino crowd gets ready for Manny Pacquiao, who shows the happiness that always seems to envelop him. Amid his chaotic life, Emmanuel, he never seems anything other than totally joyful at being Manny Pacquiao. He loves people. He loves boxing, fighting, the excitement that goes with it, the adulation, the crowd. He was born to be a prize fighter. Neither one of these fighters walks to the ring like they think it's the last mile. No matter how many times they do it, it's like the first mile. Among other things, they're gonna each make a minimum of $12 million, which would put a smile on anyone's face. Philippines. Just over Pacquiao's right shoulder, Michael Moore, one-time heavyweight champion of the world, and now the apparently anointed inheritor somewhere down the road to Freddie Roach's training operation. Yeah, they've done a great job. Seem to have a good chemistry between the three of them. And there's Freddie from behind, making himself almost inconspicuous somewhere in the Pacquiao entourage. So much of the buildup to the fight has centered on the two trainers. For his part, Roach was visibly relieved after the weigh-in yesterday, saying, okay, from now on, it's about the fighters. Thank heaven for that. Well, we have two non-American fighters, two American trainers, three American judges, and the trainers have been the subplot, and they've made it even bigger than anybody anticipated. One big credit hanging over the fight for Pacquiao. How much credit truly does he deserve for his conquest of De La Hoya? Did it prove that he could beat a quality bigger man, or did it prove only that he could batter the shell of what once was De La Hoya? Let's go to Michael Buffer now for the official introduction. Ladies and gentlemen, from the MGM Grand of Las Vegas, Bob Arum's Top Rank Incorporated and Oscar De La Hoya's Golden Boy Promotions in association with MP Promotions, Manhattan Promotions, are proud to present the main event of the evening, 12 rounds of boxing for the IBO. And Ring Magazine, Light Welterweight Championship of the World. Sponsored by Rockstar, Party Like a Rockstar, Tecate Cerveza Con Caracter, Southwest Airlines, Low Fares, No Hidden Fees, and Smart Communications. Sanctioned by the Nevada State Athletic Commission, Chairman Bill Brady, Executive Director Keith Kaiser, IBO President Ed Levine. At ringside, the three judges scoring this bout, Michael Pernick, CJ Ross, and Glenn Trowbridge. And inside the ring, your referee in charge of the action at the bell, Kenny Bayless. And now, with their places secured in the Hall of Fame, only one can become victorious tonight. So from the MGM Grand of Las Vegas for the thousands in attendance, and the millions watching around the world, ladies and gentlemen, let's get ready to rumble! Fighting out of the blue corner with his head trainer, Floyd Mayweather Sr., wearing black with white and silver. Official weight, 140 pounds. Professional record, 46 fights. 45 victories, including 32 knockouts with only one defeat. From Manchester, England, the three-time world champion and reigning defending IBO Ring Magazine Light Welterweight champion of the world, Ricky! And fighting out of the red corner with head trainer, Freddie Roach, wearing white with blue. Officially weighing 138 pounds. Professional record, 53 fights. 48 victories, including 36 knockouts. Three defeats and two draws. From Sarangani Province, Philippines, the five-time world champion, currently recognized as Pound for Pound, the best fighter in the world, Manny... Quiao. Okay, gentlemen. Trunks are okay here. Now, gentlemen, we went over the rules in the dressing room. I want to caution you to keep the fight clean at all times, protect yourself at all times, and what I say, you must obey. Good luck. Touch up. They are warrior kings with armies of fans who follow them to the battle. Now they will be alone in the battle. After a long publicity tour and a lot of exposure to each other, they are genuinely friendly. They like each other. It should not show up in the fight. No. Question one, is round one a boxing match, or does Hatton want to fight right away? No, what Ricky is doing is what, you know, the keys of victory, which we didn't have a chance to show to the audience, was for him to create anxiety and pressure on Manny, unlike anybody else has ever did before. But you have to watch Manny, because Manny's still the better puncher between the two, so he still must be a little careful. So Hatton wants to apply pressure, but with care... Yes, with care. ...against Quiao's faster hands. Yes. But I think he's doing just that. Hard right hand by Quiao. And as he comes in, key element of the game plan for... Pacquiao has been more successful with the right than the left. That punch missed. There's the right again landing. Quick right hooks are landing for Pacquiao. The left hand is overshooting the target. This fight is living up to the anxiety that the fans expected and the intensity. It's going to be an important factor to see how Kenny Bayless handles this fight, because it could be exciting, and it could end up being a very wrestling-type match also. Great right hand for Hatton, but mistakes is already read. I thought Pacquiao landed a right hook. Look out! Look out! I think Pacquiao's landed three significant right hooks already in the fight, Emmanuel. It's definitely been his best punch earlier. Straight jab lands for Pacquiao. Which again shows that he's no longer a one-punch puncher. Well, follows the jab with a hook, comes back with another jab. There's Quiao's hands are so... Pacquiao's hands are blocked. ...hands are so fast that no opponent sees the punches coming. Very accurate. Another perfect right hand for Pacquiao. Another right hook. Straight, Pacquiao's landing it well. Hard left hand. Hatton has to hold on. This is the brilliance. This is the first knockdown, Emmanuel. Right hook, as he was coming in, never saw it. And what's amazing, to see him land a punch and then slip a punch all at the same time shows unbelievable coordination. The issue has always been... And timing. ...whether Hatton could get to Pacquiao and avoid these kinds of clean punches. CompuBox numbers in round 1, utterly devastating to Pacquiao's chances. Pacquiao is 35 out of 62, 31 out of 52 power shots. Hatton out of 33. It was a Pacquiao storm in the first round. Yes, and we have to remember now, although it's a different type of fight, that Pacquiao knocked Marquez down three times in the first round. And then Marquez, a counterpuncher, began to solve him. Hatton is not a counterpuncher. Hard left hand by Hatton. He has decided to bite fire with fire. And what he's gonna have to do in this case, he gets to try to smother this guy and get close. Trying to punch at a certain distance, Pacquiao's actually just too sharp to act with a puncher. I heard Floyd Mayweather saying to Hatton, you can't just jump all over him. You've got to move your head. You've got to think. You've got to do the things we talked about in training camp. Hatton seemed to believe that he could physically overpower Pacquiao from the beginning. Yeah, and he took the risk of getting caught, and he did. Because, you know, coming in, Pacquiao still is the puncher. The physical strength is still with Hatton, but the punch is still Pacquiao. Stunned Hatton and knocked him back. Look at the accuracy of Matty Pacquiao. Both right and left hands. Misses the right hook there. What Ricky needs to do is to smother him. He cannot deal with those punches. You need to push him. That's what he's doing now. Good left hook inside by Hatton, and then he closed down Pacquiao's left side. Hard right hand again by Pacquiao. Rick can't see the hook coming. Cabelas warns Hatton for holding behind the head. Hatton's most famous victory over Costanzu, he just smothered him and didn't allow him to get off. He can't seem to be able to get close enough to him. And Pacquiao's hands are so quick. That's the point. Pacquiao's hands, as well as his head movement, his head movement, he's landing too much out of that exchange. But it's just his ability to punch, maintain balance, which he used to can do. And his head movement is just too difficult for Hatton to time. I think Pacquiao may have spent the first two minutes of this round thinking knockout and allowed himself to get a little wild. Now he goes back to more precision. Lands a hard body shot. But Ricky isn't moving his head too much still. That is the most spectacular one-punch shot of Manny Pacquiao's incredible career. Any fighter. Not sure, but he's in bad shape. Pacquiao stopped thinking knockout and went boxing. Yes, and just right. Timed with a perfect left-hand shot that he's coming in. Landing 34 of his last 53 power shots. 64%. And you know, Jim, the interesting thing is, before this fight tonight, he had shown this kind of power against the best featherweights, Barrera, Morales. Take a look at this. Take a look at this. This is a perfect time. That was super slow motion. Yeah, and he never saw timing coming in. It's the first time he's knocked out somebody like this since he was at 130 pounds. And Hatton's head hit the canvas very hard. He was knocked out as soon as the punch landed. Double jeopardy. He was unconscious from the moment he caught that shot. Goes to the canvas in the proverbial heap, and boom. Out of our camera range at that angle, the head pounded against the canvas. Here's another look. So Floyd Mayweather made his statement on a podium this morning, saying, I'm back and I'm still the best. Manny Pacquiao makes his statement right here in the ring, knocking out Ricky Hatton. And his trainer, Freddie Roach, had predicted it would not go past three rounds. Carol Hatton is sitting down. Ray Hatton is standing up in the white shirt, looking away at the left corner of your screen. That's the Hatton family area in the crowd. They're hoping that their son is going to be all right. That's Hatton's fiancée, Jennifer, in the red dress. And you can see the emotion on her face at this very moment. There's Ricky. And as we look at Ricky, we'll go up to Michael Buffer for the official particulars on the knockout. Ladies and gentlemen, from the MGM Grand of Las Vegas, the end comes at 2 minutes, 59 seconds, round number two. The winner by TKO victory. And now the new IBO and ring magazine light welterweight champion of the world and still pound for pound the best in the world, Manny Pacquiao. Two men have gotten the best of Ricky Hatton in his 47-fight career. Both of them knocked him out. Floyd Mayweather in ten rounds, Manny Pacquiao in two. And all credit to Pacquiao's trainer, Freddie Roach, who was angry about the publicity, angry at everything that Hatton's trainer said about him and said, my man will knock out Ricky Hatton within three rounds. He did it. 73 landed punches for Pacquiao out of 127 thrown. In other words, he practically couldn't miss. 18 out of 78 for Hatton, who was still scratching and sniffing and looking for some way to be in the fight at the moment when the end came. An amazing display of speed and skill. But his punches were so accurate. He was punching, slipping, ducking, and punching. I don't recall ever seeing a fight of that sharp that was doing offense and defensive at the same time. Let's go to Larry Merchant in the ring. All right, thank you very much, Jim. Congratulations, Manny. Were you surprised how this fight went? I mean, I'm surprised that the fight is kind of easy, but for me, I consider the fight is hard because he can punch. He have a strong left hand. All right, let's take a look at the knockout. When you describe, what were you thinking at the time? Did you know that one punch could finish him? Describe it. That's what our strategy, the one punch, hook by hook, left hook and right hook, that's going to be the key of this fight. All right, but going back into the first round, it was your right hook that was doing the damage. Yeah. I mean, the first round is, I expected my hook, my right hook is going to be dangerous for him because he's open while he's coming forward and his hand is down, so... You think he was trying to avoid your left hand, which is usually your power hand? That's right, that's right, but he's very surprised because I have a new technique, the right hook. Alex, ready, because you got the best training in the world. You got the best training. Do you feel that a fighter who comes to you this way and tries to get to you, inevitably you're going to be able to impose your power on him? I mean, sir, like what I said, I'm always doing my job in the ring and do my best to make people happy. All right, let's... Like this fight and, you know, nothing personal for me. I'm just doing my job. All right, speaking of doing your job, let's go back to the first round and take a look at the knockdowns and describe them. The first knockdown. Yeah, that's the right hook. We study that every day in the gym. If you see the 24-7, I mean, I throw a lot of hooks in the training. So that's why he's very surprised on that style. Is this fight as satisfying to you as your victory over Asuka Delaware? I mean, I'm satisfied. I mean, you know, nothing personal. I'm just doing my job. I mean, I'm always trying my best in the ring, you know, to give more impression to the people. All right, we all know that Floyd Mayweather Jr. is coming back. He's going to be fighting a fighter you had really tough fights with, Marquez. If he wins that fight, is that a fight you want, you and Mayweather? Well, I can fight anybody, you know. It depends how my promoters' negotiations are. And I'm just a fighter and doing my job training and keep 100% in that fight. All right, thank you very much again for a great fight. Thank you, sir. And I hope everybody happy. Thank you very much to all of you guys for coming here tonight. Many being many. And this is Freddie Roach being Freddie Roach. You predicted a third-round knockout. I don't think we're going to hold it against you that you were wrong by a round. Why did you make that prediction? And what did you see happening in this fight that was going to make it come true? Well, every time Ricky throws his left hand, he pulls it back and cocks it. And he's wide open for a short right hook on the inside from the southpaw stance. And we worked on that every day in the gym, the timing shot, and it just worked beautiful. Did you know after that first round that, okay, now it's going to happen anytime, it's going to be over, or did you think that Hatton still had the strength to make it a longer fight? No, I knew it was over because Ricky doesn't have the ability, it seems like, to adjust. He fights the same way over and over again. I've watched tapes of him for the last two and a half months. I know him pretty well. What do you think about the possibility of Manny fighting Mayweather should Mayweather beat Marquez in July? I think it's a very good possibility. It's a fight that if the fans want to see it, I think everyone, it's a natural fight out there. The two best fighters in the world, I think it'd be a great fight. Thank you very much, Freddie. Jim? Thank you very much. And by the way, one of the stories which surrounds Manny Pacquiao, visible there, and that is that Freddie Roach's battle with Parkinson's ongoing is probably getting more difficult. That's one of the reasons Michael Moore has been brought in to help train Freddie, or help Freddie train Manny Pacquiao. But what an amazing marriage Pacquiao and Roach have forged, and it was visible in the way he used all of his techniques to be that near. You know, this is Freddie Roach's signature fight. You know, everybody has the one fighter that you identified with. I'm fortunate I've had three between Thomas Earns, Lennox, and now Klitschko. But the chemistry between them is just fantastic. And, you know, he worked with Mike Tyson. He worked with James Toney, but it was not the same. But Freddie Roach is really into this guy, and they're working on combinations and everything that Freddie wants to teach him. He learns, he catches on to it. It's a great, great marriage, and this Manny Pacquiao is something else. I'm just thinking, since he landed here when he fought the guy from Saudi Arabia, and since he came here, I mean, all of the great fights he's been in, it just, I'm just thinking about him. Morales, Barrera, and Marquez, and De La Hoya. And now he's trying to be a fighter. Three with Morales. Legendary wars. Two with Barrera, two with Marquez. Amazing career. He is the pound-for-pound champion, as far as I'm concerned, because he's earned it the hard way from 122 pounds up to 140 pounds. He hasn't ducked anybody. And here's the most amazing part to me, Emmanuel. His life is visible chaos. I mean, there are very few of us on the planet who will have to put up with as much in terms of responsibility and the confusion which surrounds him and the difficulties that he faces naturally from his upbringing and the country in which he lives than Manny Pacquiao. And he hit the big time about five or six years ago. And since that time, he has evolved from being essentially a double jab left cross fighter to a guy who can do anything. So good now with his right hand that you could probably tie his left hand behind his back, and he would still be tremendously difficult for a lot of people to beat. What a learning curve. He can do everything. That's what makes him so complicated. Yeah, and he's obviously very smart. Yeah, he can do it. Feet, hands, uppercut, jab, body punches, head movement, footwork, everything. He's got it all. All right, we had hoped that Larry Merchant was going to be able to get a brief word with Ricky Hatton, but what we've been told is that Hatton isn't feeling well enough to be interviewed by Larry and is gonna go to the dressing room from there, most likely after a knockout like that. I assume he gets taken to the hospital and examined for any, you know, subdural difficulty, any brain difficulty, which ought to be the case. Ricky's a brilliant and brave fighter. For his part, Emmanuel, he hired Floyd Mayweather ostensibly to become a better boxer and to achieve a broader range of skills. Wasn't that really unrealistic in retrospect? Well, you can't change everything, especially when you're an overaggressive fighter the way that he is. In both of his losses, he ran into punches, so to say. He walked in, he's just overly aggressive. He loses his balance, and his mind gets so much set on offense, he doesn't think about defense. But nevertheless, he's been a great, exciting fighter. He's been great for boxing and brought a lot of excitement here to Las Vegas. Whether it's a rematch against Marquez, and a lot of people want to see that third fight, or it's a battle against Floyd Mayweather if Mayweather is able to beat Marquez in July, will Pacquiao be the favorite against either guy, even though Mayweather, coming back from a year off, is demonstrably larger than Manny? That's a great, great, great question. I think he would be against Marquez. I think against Floyd. I think Floyd Steele is a skillful, talented fighter in the public respect, and the physical size, I think, would be a factor. I think it would be like a toss-up. Maybe they may favor Floyd, but I don't know. Pacquiao's one of the hearts of so many people that, you know, hearts and emotions get in the way of betting sometimes, and common sense. I don't know. All right, and as we talk about Manny Pacquiao and his prospects, you watch Ricky Hatton, vanquished hero to thousands, headed off to his dressing room. Emmanuel, thanks very much. Let's turn to Larry Merchant, who's now made it back from what was a really wild crowd in the ring, and your final thoughts on this brilliant performance by Pacquiao. Very often, you have no idea what you're gonna get out of that boxing's box of chocolates when you open it up. But this was an occasion when many people thought, well, we were gonna get some cherries with chocolate on it, and that the burden of proof was on Hatton to show that he could come forward and survive the early rounds to make it a long, hard fight, and he couldn't. Earlier, we asked the question, can Manny Pacquiao live up to the flattery of being called this generation's Henry Armstrong? Once again, we got the answer. Indeed. Pacquiao lives up to all the expectations and more. Bottom line, Manny Pacquiao ranks as the number one pound-for-pound fighter in the sport. Ricky Hatton was an applicant for that position. His application has now been tabled or sent to the circular file. Next up, Floyd Mayweather, the returning pound-for-pound number one, against Juan Manuel Marquez, who is the pound-for-pound number two, with Pacquiao waiting in the wings to see what happens. It's maybe just the beginning of an ongoing great story and yet another brilliant performance to put into the time capsule for surely the most exciting fighter of this area, era, the Knockout Filipino, Manny Pacquiao. Thanks very much for being with us on this HBO Pay-Per-View demonstration, or presentation, I should say. Pacquiao vs. Hatton has been brought to you by MGM Grand, the city of entertainment in Las Vegas, Rockstar Energy Drink, Party Like a Rockstar, Tecate Beer, Cerveza Con Character, Southwest Airlines, Float Fares, No Hidden Fees, and also HBO Pay-Per-View, the best in pay-per-view entertainment, brought to you by HBO. We'd also like to thank the following internet partners. And now for our entire crew, I'm Jim Lampley, saying so long from Las Vegas, Nevada.