Things I’ve learned from the second episode of Hatton/Pacquiao 24/7:

1. Floyd Mayweather Sr. is almost 60 years old and is in better shape than I am, was, and ever will be.

2. Manny Pacquiao’s wife could get it, I didn’t really take notice of her during the Pacquiao/De La Hoya 24/7 because she was pregnant, but now that she’s back to normal I see whats good.

3. I was initially not too interested in seeing this, but HBO’s hype machine is legendary because I’m dying to see these guys fight now. The entire key to the fight will be Ricky Hatton’s ability to deal with Manny’s speed. We’ve seen Hatton get picked apart by a faster fighter before, so what he has to do now is be a smarter boxer. If Floyd Sr. manages to pull this off and get Ricky to overhaul his style and win…. he’ll be trainer of the year.

So we’re about a month away from Manny Pacquiao’s fight with Ricky Hatton and HBO is rolling out the first class promo for the bout. I originally predicted that Manny would murder Ricky Hatton, but I don’t think he’s going to fight the same Ricky that Floyd Mayweather fought.

In the past, Ricky would just charge in and bull-over fighters until he met someone faster and technically sound. Floyd Mayweather Sr. is making a point to teach him head movement, defense, and precision punching. A funny thing in this video is you’ll see Ricky Hatton working on drills he used to tease Floyd Mayweather for doing.

I caught an old rerun of the Chris Rock Show on HBO last night, and there was a bit where Chris goes to a boxing gym and polls everyone on the state of white boxing. Everyone he questions pretty much trashes white boxers, but I thought it was funny considering that things have changed in the last 9 years since this originally aired.

Joe Calzaghe, Wladimir & Vitaly Klitschko, Ricky Hatton, and Kelly Pavlik have emerged as elite boxers in the last few years…. so all hope wasn’t lost eh?

and LOL @ “Asian boxers are tenderheaded”

Fresh off his destruction of Oscar De La Hoya, Manny Pacquiao will be stepping into the ring against Ricky Hatton on May 2nd. Being that the rest of the welterweight class is too big for Manny, Ricky was the best opponent available at a lower class and will present an exciting fight. Ricky is all offense, which meshes well with Pacquiao’s exciting style.

If Manny manages to win this fight, it sets up the fight of the century with Floyd Mayweather this fall. Floyd hasn’t been seen partying in Las Vegas for months, so maybe he’s getting his mind right for a potential return to the ring…. lets hope so.

Theres a crazy myth that’s been regurgitated over and over by the sports media and fans who don’t know better for the last year or so. The myth is that Floyd Mayweather ducked Antonio Margarito and is scared to fight him. I know this myth provides fodder for the masses and gives everyone the chance to stir the pot, but the problem is that it’s simply not true.

I’ve touched on this issue before on Sportaphile, but in this post I’m going to break things down thoroughly so I don’t have to debate my readers over and over in the comments.

Aside from what I just previously mentioned, there are two major reasons that people love to believe this myth, and I’ll discuss each reason below.

*Why People Willingly Believe This Myth*
This part is simple. Floyd Mayweather is VERY easy to dislike to a large percentage of sports fans. People look at Floyd and see a loudmouthed, ignorant, spoiled rich black man, and it turns them off. He prances around in Read the rest of this entry »