“Pretty Boy” Mayweather KOs “Hitman” Hatton in 10
“Pretty Boy” Floyd Mayweather stopped Ricky “The Hitman” Hatton with a technical knockout at 1:35 of the 10th round .
Las Vegas, NV - “Pretty Boy” Floyd Mayweather stopped Ricky “The Hitman” Hatton with a technical knockout at 1:35 of the 10th round to retain his WBC welterweight title on Saturday night.
Hatton (43-1) was coming in for left hook, and Mayweather tagged him with a left hook of his own to the left cheek, sending the Brit staggering into the ring post and onto the mat.
Only a few seconds later Mayweather (39-0, 25 KOs) landed another tough left hook to Hatton’s head, and “The Hitman” was down for the count.
Mayweather, 30, reiterated after the fight that he is winding his career down, and doesn’t plan on taking on any challengers in the near future. This would be the second time that the champ has indicated a desire to stop fighting, as he announced his retirement after defeating Oscar De La Hoya in May.
That retirement didn’t last too long, though.
Things were lining up for Hatton to score the upset early, as the Brit, sporting blue and silver trunks, landed a good left hook early in the first round that had Mayweather off balance for a step. The champ regained his balance, though, and came back, tagging Hatton with a strong right hook late in the second round.
Hatton bulled Mayweather against the ropes in the fourth round, landing a few tough body shots. “Pretty Boy” found a way to push back to the center of the ring, though, and punished Hatton late in the round.
In sixth round Hatton had a point deducted for hitting Mayweather on the back of the head. Hatton, protesting that Mayweather turned his back, turned his back to Mayweather after the referee started the fight back up.
Mayweather clutched and grabbed through much of the early rounds, but came on strong in the eighth round, momentarily stopping Hatton with a right hook to the face. “Pretty Boy” got his opponent in corner in the last 30 seconds of the round, landing a series of hooks to Hatton’s face and body, and appeared to take control from there.
The official scorecards revealed after the fight that, at the time of the knockout, the fight was scored heavily in Mayweather’s favor - 89-81, 89-81, and 88-82.
At a combined 81-0, this was the biggest matchup of two undefeated welterweights since Oscar De La Hoya took on Felix Trinidad in 1999.
Mayweather was fighting in his adopted home of Las Vegas, but it was Hatton that was the crowd favorite. Thousands of British fans of “The Hitman” made the journey to Vegas to cheer on Hatton, as has become a tradition in all of his fights.
Mayweather’s last fight was his highly publicized, and slightly controversial, 12-round unanimous decision over De La Hoya on May 5 that ran his record to 38-0, with 24 knockouts.
Hatton was coming off a fourth-round knockout of Jose Luis Castillo on June 23, a dominating performance that gave him 31 career knockouts in 43 wins.
In the undercard, Daniel Ponce de Leon won a unanimous 12-round decision over Eduardo Escobedo for the WBO Jr. featherweight belt.
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