Wednesday, Dec. 5, 2007 | 6:58 a.m.
At stake: Welterweight world championship
Date/site: Saturday night at the MGM Grand Garden Arena
Tickets: Sold out
Closed circuit: $50, MGM Mirage properties
TV: HBO Pay-Per-View, $54.95
Promoters: Golden Boy Promotions, Mayweather Promotions
Referee: Joe Cortez
Undercard: Jeff Lacy (22-1, 17 KOs) vs. Peter Manfredo Jr. (28-4, 13 KOs), 10 rounds, super middleweights; Daniel Ponce De Leon (33-1, 30 KOs) vs. Eduardo Escobedo (20-2, 14 KOs), 12 rounds, WBO junior featherweight championship; Wes Ferguson (17-2-1, 5 KOs) vs. Edner Cherry (22-5-2, 10 KOs), 10 rounds, lightweights
Betting line: Mayweather -265/Hatton +225
Round proposition: 11 1/2 rounds, over -260/under +220
KEY FIGHTS
A sampling of key fights and commentary by and about Floyd Mayweather Jr. and Ricky Hatton, who are both undefeated:
FLOYD MAYWEATHER JR.
Dec. 7, 2002: Unanimous decision vs. Jose Luis Castillo (rematch)
Hatton: "(Castillo) was able to bully him to the ropes a lot and ... I don't think Castillo has got as good or faster footwork as me."
April 8, 2006: Unanimous decision vs. Zab Judah
Hatton: "Zab opened up with his punches but he could not sustain his attack. I think Zab let (Mayweather) back into the fight. Zab lost it as much as Floyd won it."
May 5, 2007: Split decision vs. Oscar De La Hoya
Hatton: "Oscar nearly did it but I think he tired a little bit. Oscar is a little more of a tactician than a pressure fighter. I won't let up over the final six (rounds)."
RICKY HATTON
June 4, 2005: 11th-round TKO vs. Kostya Tszyu
Mayweather: "It looked like a wrestling match to me. Punch and hold, punch and hold."
Hatton: "Pain and tiredness didn't even come into the equation that night. I didn't feel any of it."
May 13, 2006: Unanimous decision vs. Luis Collazo
Billy Graham, Hatton's trainer: "(Hatton) put on far too much weight from the scales to the actual contest, which made him sluggish."
Mayweather: "Hatton lost to Collazo. He got a gift (in the scoring)."
June 23, 2007: 4th-round KO vs. Jose Luis Castillo
Mayweather: "He fights Castillo five years after I fought him. Castillo doesn't want to go 12 rounds. He punches Castillo to the body, Castillo turns around, walks away and goes to a knee."
Hatton: "A lot of people said I did a better job than Floyd did (in his most recent fight). Then again, a lot of people said Castillo was past his prime."
Hatton's home known for rock, punk as well as boxing
The hardscrabble way of life in Manchester, England, hometown of Ricky Hatton and his trainer, Billy Graham, makes it a fertile breeding ground for fighters.
"Manchester is the boxing capital of Britain," Graham said. "Without boxing, I would be nothing."
But Manchester is known for more than boxing. A traditionally industrial city, it gave rise to several waves of rock and punk music, including bands such as the Hollies, the Smiths, the Buzzcocks and the Happy Mondays.
Decades before their music inspired Manchester brothers Liam and Noel Gallagher to form Oasis, the Beatles famously played several concerts in Manchester.
Morrissey, leader of the Smiths, immortalized the city in song with the great opening line of "The Headmaster Ritual": "Belligerent ghouls run Manchester schools."
On a more somber note, a 1996 Provisional Irish Republican Army bomb detonation in the city left 200 people injured and devastated local businesses.
Two football clubs - soccer teams, to us - divide the loyalty of Mancunians, or "Mancs." Hatton supports Manchester City, the team for which his father played, rather than the more famous Manchester United. Hatton also was a "footballer" as a youngster before making his mark in boxing.
"Ricky has influenced more young British boxers than anybody in the country," Graham said.
Floyd Mayweather Jr.'s bodyguards aren't worried about Ricky Hatton.
They point at Hatton's visage on a poster by the front window of Mayweather's gym in Chinatown, declare that he looks like a Hobbit - "who was that little guy in 'The Lord of the Rings'?" - and dissolve into laughter.
They offer impressions of Hatton, giving the Manchester fighter an over-the-top cockney accent, as if he were a Disney chimney sweep: "Hey, mate, give me another beer." More laughs.
Inside the door they're guarding, as Mayweather's about to step into the ring for a training session he delivers a subtler put-down of his opponent in Saturday's welterweight world title fight.
In contrast to Hatton, who has been studying videos of Mayweather's fights to get ready for the pay-per-view bout at the MGM Grand, Mayweather maintains he can't be bothered.
"I really don't watch his fights," Mayweather said. It turns out Mayweather pays attention only to "big name" fighters. Roy Jones Jr. Oscar De La Hoya. Marco Antonio Barrera.
Not Ricky Hatton. Like his bodyguards, Floyd Mayweather isn't worried about Ricky Hatton.
"I never worry about nothing in the ring," Mayweather said. "I know my skills. I know my talent. I know what I can do. I'm going to punish him."
It has been 2 1/2 years since Hatton, like Mayweather unbeaten as a professional, entered a fight as an underdog. Hatton pulled off the upset against Kostya Tszyu before an ecstatic hometown crowd that night, and he plans a reprise against Mayweather, this time on a bigger, American stage.
"Nobody gave me a chance against Tszyu," Hatton said. "Not a one. That just made me all the better. I just hope nobody picks me to win again."
Hatton claims he thrives on being underestimated by Mayweather's camp. He writes off Mayweather's series of slights as so much codswallop from the champ, whom Hatton sees as arrogant and conceited.
Hatton and - not surprisingly - Mayweather both say Mayweather deserves to be ranked No. 1 in the sport, pound for pound.
"But as far as his personality goes, it's entirely different," Hatton said. "It truly is a clash of personalities."
For instance, Hatton dismisses talk by Roger Mayweather, Floyd's uncle and trainer, that Mayweather would go down as the greatest boxer in history if he retired today, ahead of Sugar Ray Robinson and Muhammad Ali.
"Yeah," Hatton scoffed, before uttering a clever if unprintable retort that drew the biggest laugh of the buildup to the fight. (Hint: The conclusion of the punch line was " ... as big as Ron Jeremy's.")
Studying those tapes of Mayweather's fights - against Jose Luis Castillo twice in 2002, against Zab Judah and Carlos Baldomir last year, against De La Hoya this year - has been invaluable as Hatton creates a game plan for Mayweather, he said.
Hatton speaks of using "controlled aggression," and insists his skills are on the same level as Mayweather's, just in separate areas of the game: delivering body punches rather than eluding them, fighting up close rather than from a distance.
"Every fighter has got an Achilles' heel," Hatton said. "I'm his."
Castillo and Judah, even the more tactical De La Hoya, briefly had Mayweather in trouble during the early rounds of their fights. To knock off the pound-for-pound champ, Hatton knows he must be ready to sustain the pressure for 12 rounds.
"I don't think he's going to knock me out, and I don't think he's going to outwork me and outpunch me," Hatton said. "I think he's looking at me and just seeing the obvious - come forward, body punches, a lot of punches. There's a lot more to me than that. I'm quick and explosive in my movements. I think those things are going to surprise him.
"I know he likes to make you miss. He shows you the shoulder. He doesn't give you much to punch at. He's going to cover up, but he's going to need it."
Thanks to his aggression and punching power, Hatton has developed perhaps the most rabid fan base in the sport, mostly in his native Britain. Outside of the ring, he portrays himself as a man of the people who plays darts and drinks Guinness at the pub (inadvertently giving Mayweather's bodyguards ammunition).
In a turnabout from earlier in his career, when he was characterized as having talent but lacking box office appeal, Mayweather is trying to position himself as a crossover star.
After his May 5 fight against De La Hoya set a pay-per-view record with more than 2 million buys, Mayweather competed on the ABC show "Dancing with the Stars."
More recently, Mayweather's sometimes outrageous antics have been chronicled on the HBO show "24/7," designed to hype Saturday's fight.
In one scene that bugged Hatton, Mayweather fanned out a bunch of $100 bills to show off his bankroll, a move more reminiscent of the late-night infomercial guy with the question-mark suit than an actual high roller.
"He's not going to gain many fans doing what he's doing, going on about his money, throwing it about," Hatton said. "It's like he's being disrespectful to people. 'Look what I've got.' He's not going to endear himself to the public doing those kinds of things."
Mayweather says the ostentatious display of cash was calculated to show kids who are growing up poor that it's possible to become successful without resorting to illegal means such as dealing drugs.
It might sound like a disingenuous explanation, but give Mayweather credit for shooting straight in one respect. He made some noise about retiring from boxing after beating De La Hoya, but acknowledges his decision to have a "comeback" fight against Hatton was based on money, that he left "too much green" on the table.
The poster on his gym's window gives equal space to Mayweather and Hatton, but as pound-for-pound champ, Mayweather believes he deserves top billing. If De La Hoya was the marquee name last time, now Floyd Mayweather is the main attraction, cocky attitude and all.
"If (Hatton's) fan base is so big, why is it his first pay-per-view fight?" Mayweather said. "I hold the record for pay-per-view ...
"I'm not bragging. Go back to Ali. Look what he did. He backed it up. He wasn't bragging. Yo, I'm the best, man. It's just that simple."
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