Last night I stayed up catching up with the first two episodes of HBO’s sensational 24/7 series on the upcoming mega clash between Ricky Hatton and Manny Pacquiao.
The production values for the show are out of this world and I highly recommend it. With the music and the voice of the narrator alone it will make a tussle at the local Ross Dress for Less between two senior citizens for the last pair of summer sandals in a size 6 and half must see tv.
To be quite honest, when the mega fight between the “Hitman” of Manchester, England and the “Pacman” of General Santos City, Philippines was first announced, I wasn’t all that excited about the match up. Pacquiao’s awesome destruction of Oscar De La Hoya while Hatton’s lackluster performance against Juan Lazcano were still fresh in my mind and it seemed to me that the junior welterweight contest was a walk through the park for the current pound for pound king.
Now after watching the behind the scenes of both camps, I am not to sure.
It seems to me that Team Pacquiao is an a transitional mode right now with the inclusion of former heavyweight champion Michael Moorer into the mix. I understand that Freddie Roach, with his growing issue with Parkinson’s disease, needs some help in the gym but I don’t know if including Moorer in the actual training session with Manny is the best idea.
At first neither did Roach.
It is no secret that there is a special bond between Roach and the Filipino wunderkind. I don’t think that in preparation for a stiff challenge from a quick and strong natural 140 lbs. like Hatton is the best time to introduce a new cog to the well oiled machine.
Moorer comes accross as a strong minded individual which makes me believe that he will want his opinion to be heard not only in preparation for the May 2nd main event but also in the corner on said night.
On the other hand, it looks like Camp Hatton with the inclusion of the rarely punctual but overly self confident Floyd Mayweather Sr. is hitting a groove.
Although I am not impressed by the pitty patter glove work that now has become a signature training tool within the Mayweather dynasty, it does seem as if Hatton is benefiting from the speed and defense drills that the maniacal Mayweather Sr. puts him through.
While the work that is being done at the Wild Card gym in Hollywood for Pacquiao seems as business with the exception of the addition of Moorer, it seems as if Hatton is willing to try new things to improve himself such as moving his camp to Las Vegas and training out of Manchester at the urging of Mayweather Sr.
With that said and after staying up well past my bedtime to ponder the action that is going to take place at the MGM Grand I am not going to dismiss the unavoidable possibility that Pacquiao will astound us all once again as he has many times before and put on a performance of legendary proportions.
But I am slightly leaning more towards Hatton taking advantage of his size, his experience at junior welterweight, his quick hands and feet, his bullying fighting style and his newly acquired skills and pulling out an upset with a highly contested and entertaining split decision.
So in closing, I have a highly cryptic message to deliver:
Chamando, 20 bolas al Hatton!
Photos by Raymond Rodriguez
I agree and disagree with you again.
Yes I think there are a lot of pay per view fights out there that re not meant to be pay for. This is not only a HBO thing, it’s an all around boxing issue.
Both HBO and Showtime have good and bad fights, don’t tell me you didn’t enjoy Marquez vs Diaz, I loved that fight, it had me standing and screaming at my TV set most of the fight, same as this last weekend Taylor vs Froch fight, I only wish all of the fights were like this, but we all know this is not the case and also no one really knows how a fight will turn out to be.
De la Hoya wasn’t really him that night, I mean he did nothing at all, there was obviously something wrong, he could have had a chance if he had fought at least like he did against Mayorga, so who knows about that and about all of the other boring fights we have seen throughout the years.
All in all I think Pacman vs Hatton will be a good competitive fight, but then again I’m not going to be the one paying for it.
Just a reminder to the naive.
The Patton / Pacquiao 24/7 series is a 100% pure advertisement. and nothing more. It is just a teaser.
It is not meant to be inciteful, honest and accurate. It is funded 100% by HBO subscribers (Warner Brothers), is using boxing fans as suckers to take HBO subscribers fees to fund this extended a advertisement for their pay for view bout.
HBO subscribers need to remind HBO about this as well as ask why do we have to fund the advertisements for their pay-for-view productions, yet their is NO discount whatsoever for HBO subscribers on the pay-for-view.
Honestly, their is less incentive for fighters in these mega-ripoffs than their are on other fights.
What WAS a great fight, where there WAS hunger and great motivation, was on Showtime , with the amazing Jermain Taylor vs Carl Froch fight. I guarantee that the pay-for-view dollarlust battle will have nowhere the action adn intensity of that classic.
In that REAL fight, I have never seen Taylor fight better and it also was obvious that Froch was tight and uncomfortable for quite a bit of the fight. That was his first fight that was more than 10 miles from his home.
No THAT was a fight worthy of out support, not the overblown overmarketed pay-for-suckers fight coming up.
Here’s a good idea, re-watch the 24/7 of the De La Polla vs Pacquiao fight. It really looked like it was going to be really competitive and that De La Polla was exceptionally ready with his training.
The 24/7 HBO shows on ONLY DONE FOR THEIR HBO SPONSORED PAY-FOR-VIEW fiasco.
Are there any other decent fights on the card ? I honestly don’t know.
Every person who shells out the 50-60-70-80 dollars (depending where) for that fight does a disservice to boxing fans all over as well as boxers who aren’t marketing darlings and have to work their way uip by taking on all comers.
Jon
Welcome to planet earth, where everyone tries to make a buck out of you.
Cable and satellite are a rip off all alone, they charge you a monthly fee for a package of channels that not everyone is going to see, yet if you want to get a specific channel you need to get the package that has it and you will pay more for something you may not want or need.
On top of that they keep doing all of these commercials..HELLO you are paying for the channels, it’s not over the air anymore! still you’ll see every single drug and sham wow commercial one after one. (CNN is not even a over the air channel, yet they break into comercial every 3 minutes, now I know what drug to buy if I wake up in the morning and go to sleep at night. LP Morgan tells me it’s my money I can use it when I need it.
So yes you will see adds for ring magazine and others in the 24/7, if you ask me it bothers me to see them because it is irritating, but it’s still a good show and the whole purpose of it is to get people to buy the upcoming fight, at the end you end up making that decision.
Boxing needs more exposure, sure the 24/7 episodes are for mega fight and there is much more to watch and sometimes better fights out there that don’t get so much attention, but I think this doesn’t hurt the sport at all.
Pacquiao vs hatton is going to be a good fight.
Do you thing Hatton or Pacquiao vs Paul Williams make sense?
They don’t have a chance at all, Paul is way to big for them, that is pretty obvious and it makes no sense to even talk about it.
Paman vs Hatton will be a good fight, they are both the same size, no mismatch here and I can’t wait to see what happens.
I agree with you that now in days it’s all about money and not pride like it used to be back in the golden years of boxing, but good fights are still being made and if you don’t like one well don’t buy it, but people still buy and support things like WWE, so go figure!
Yes you see
Of course I am going to totally disagree with this and I hope no one watches this.
What bothers me is IS that the money is being poured in to this is totally rips off HBO subscribers, who are funding what is nothing more than an a bunch of advertisements, teasers, coming attractions to sell they pay per view.
So the HBO subscribers, especially the boxing fans are funding the production, YET, when the fight is on, they have to purchase it from HBO to see it at the same price as NON-HBO subscribers !!
The 24/7 is NOTHING MORE THAN ADVERTISEMENTS.
I would MUCH rather see the money go into getting better matches for the HBO subscribers, to the documentaries like the fantastic Thrilla In Minilla, which should be mentioned, but then again, HBO is throwing lots of money around is the reason for the article that is posted on Myboxingfans.com.
Now THAT is an absolute NOT miss. It is about he men, especially Joe Frazier.
There used to be this great series on HBO about great fights, and the fighters, which is not done anymore. They have shown repeats for years and I can only watch the documentary about the Bowe-Hollyfield fights (which was great), for so long.
This 27/7 stuff is a total ripoff for the HBO subscribers and boxing fans. It hurts boxing as fighers dont fight each other like they did, they only want to giant. bix money pay for view ripoff fights with De La Polla, Pacquiao(who is a truly great fighter), Mayfeather, Hatton, Roy Jones etc.
While those who aren’t afraid to fight the other top fighters in their division get shunned and don’t make the money these hyped up, overblown productions get.
Here is one thing that I absolutely guarantee. That neither of these two fighters have very much incentive and will not fight like hungry fighters. There is no reason to. This will get them set up for retirement and wont be fighting anyone who might really deserve it (which Hatton doesn’t), but will only come out for these pay-for-view marketing blitzes.
It will be great to watch Hatton look to hold and hit, and clutch Pacquiao. We know he can’t hurt Pacquiao, unless Pacquiao is not focused because this fight is about only fighting for money.
Showtime has consistent better fights and has gone WAY past HBO and its cliches with fights.
By the way, I would give 10 to 1 odds, betting on Paul Williams againt Hatton.
I will bet that neither Pacquiao, Hatton, De La Polla, Meafeather, and the rest of those marketed fighters would go near Williams.
The same is true with a fighter like Mikkel Kessler, who is far and away the best in his weight class. It is very hard to for a guy like Kessler to take a fight that makes some money because he also is avoided like the plague.
Jon
HBO used to have a great series
I agree 24/7 is awesome!! , if it makes you want to see the fight there you know there doing there job
Great points Edgar, I agree these 24/7 series are getting better and better, they look like a Imax documentary, awesome footage and great sound, but they make me just want to see the actual fight right after it.
You should double that!
40 bolas al Hatton!
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