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I love Pacquiao in this fight, but then again, I loved de la Hoya in the fight against Pacquiao. I just can't see a glorified clubfighter like Hatton beating the fighting machine that pummelled Oscar into retirement. Hatton tries hard and is pretty fast with his hands, but he's basically a straight-ahead fighter who gets hit too much, and unlike other guys who fought a similar style--Dempsey, Frazier, Duran, to name a few of the best - Hatton doesn't have the chin to pull it off. He was wobbled by Juan Lazcano, a journeyman, two fights back, and needed 11 rounds to dispose of feather-fisted Paulie Malignaggi, who basically gave up after three rounds. Hatton's only truly standout performance was against a washed-up Kostya Tszu four years ago, and people went nuts over him, but the easy beating by Floyd Mayweather Jr. I think is more indicative of his true abilities at this level. There's juist no logical reason to pick Hatton on his merits.

Pacquiao, on the other hand, seems to have vastly improved as both a boxer and a puncher as he's moved up in weight, his best performances coming against David Diaz and de la Hoya in weight classes he had never tried before. In some respects, the Oscar KO is a mirage, because de la Hoya turned out to be a shot fighter going in, but that should not detract from Pacquiao's performance, which was probably the most complete of his career. The guy is not a young 30--he's been fighting almost 15 years and was knocked out twice as a bantamweight--and he's fighting almost 50 pounds above the weight he started at (106) so I don't think he will have a particularly long shelf life. But he certainly has enough left to handle Hatton. He'll cut him up before stopping him in eight rounds. Or less.

- by Wallace Matthews, Newsday

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