Joking aside: The Dream Fight - When Paquiao became my favourite, When Hatton broke my heart
Joking Brit/Fili rivalries aside, this is set to go down as the biggest and greatest fight of the year, even if the winner does go on to tackle Floyd Mayweather, for the first or second time, I have a feeling it couldn't match the all-out war that's about to unfold this Saturday May 2nd.
When I was watching Juan Manuel Marquez and Juan Diaz go toe-to-toe in their all out war of a match, and the finale of excellence as JMM pulled off an incredible TKO victory, I told the person I was watching it with, "The Hatton/Pacquiao fight will be as good, if not better than this". It's the fight I wished and hoped over Christmas time would not only take place, but Hatton would have his own way and that it would go down in London so I could get my wish and watch them fight, but of course, American promoters get their own way.
The reason why I loved the first mention of this fight was of course, the boxers. It's not often that your two favourite boxers in the world go head-to-head, especially two boxers as ferocious as these two. I hardly believe for two minutes that this will reach the twelth round, no matter who wins.
I've seen a few Manny Pacquiao fights, but I first started watching compulsively, and actually stayed up til 4am on one March 15th 2008 night to catch the rematch with Marquez. I knew it was set to be a great fight, and it was. I loved every second of it, and I became a huge fan of Pacquiao at that point (I later fell in love as JMM began following Pacquiao up the weight divisions KOing everyone).
I stayed up to watch his brilliant KO of David Diaz, a work of art. And obviously, I paid for the De La Hoya fight and enjoyed it immensily, as you can tell from the start of the Manny Pacquiao tags on this blog.
Ricky Hatton on the other hand, I was much more closer to, and began officially watching his fights with his Juan Urango fight, his brilliant Castillo KO and then, the following Mayweather fight.
In the old blog, I left the most pretentiously written and awkward post that very night relating to the fight. I was heartbroken, I seriously couldn't get over it for a few weeks. Leading up to the fight, the belief was unbelievable. Two unbeaten fighters stepping into the ring, and Hatton seemed the man to stop him. I had so much belief, so when he fell lifeless to the canvas, it actually hurt in the chest. It was like watching dreams die, and became one of those boxing moments that will stick with me for the rest of my life.
And it's the same with this fight, joking aside, and much like the Filipino nation, I'll be backing Hatton 100%. I believe he can win, he'll be too much, too strong and essentially too big. But there's also the possibilities that Pacquiao will be too fast, he'll keep moving (as a Southpaw) out of the way of Hatton (who has only fought a single southpaw) and punching him in his blind side. Anything can happen, and that's why this fight is so great.
Depending on how my bet on a horse race tomorrow morning goes, I'll be upping my bet by at least £5, if not £8.
I can't wait for this fight. If there is such thing as a 'dream fight', this would be mine.