MAYWEATHER IN 10!
L'Américain Floyd Mayweather
(39-0, 25 KO) a conservé son titre mondial WBC des poids welters en
battant le Britannique Ricky Hatton (43-1, 31 KO) par KO au 10ème
round, samedi soir au MGM Grand Garden Arena de Las Vegas (Nevada).
Dans les premières reprises, Hatton s'est montré agressif, contrôlant le rythme du combat. Mayweather s'ajuste et procède par coups isolés avant de s'accrocher. Coupé à l'arcade droite au troisième round, Hatton malmène Mayweather au début de la reprise suivante mais ce dernier éprouve ensuite le Britannique à plusieurs reprises. Les deux hommes prennent l'avantage à tour de rôle au fil des reprises. Hatton reçoit un avertissement au sixième round pour avoir frappé derrière la tête, cela ne l'empêche pas de dominer.
Le combat tourne au huitième et neuvième rounds où le champion touche de nombreuses fois avec des coups nets et puissants, dominant alors son rival en boxe pure. Au dixième round, Mayweather envoie Hatton au tapis avec un crochet gauche. Ce dernier se rélève et reprend le combat, mais n'a pas récupéré et retourne au sol sur série, l'arbitre Joe Cortez déclarant le knockout après 1:35. A cet instant, l'Américain était largement en tête sur les cartes des trois juges : 89-81, 89-81, 88-82. Source_Nextboxe.com_09/12/07_Las Vegas, Nevada _Albert Howell
Source_09.12.07_TheDailysports.com : Floyd Mayweather Jr. kept his perfect record in
tact Saturday night by stopping Ricky Hatton in the tenth round of
their scheduled twelve round Welterweight Championship fight. The
contest was the Main Event of “Undefeated”, which was promoted by
Golden Boy Promotions and broadcast live from the MGM Grand Arena in
Las Vegas by HBO PPV.
Ricky Hatton pressed the fight. He was the aggressor for most of the
contest. Floyd Mayweather was forced to fight Hatton’s fight and turned
out to be the victor...
With the MGM Grand Arena, packed with singing British fans, both
fighters began the fight by going right after each other. It was
obvious from the start that Mayweather had the hand and foot speed, but
Ricky was a lot quicker than Floyd may have thought. The first round
found both fighters landing punches, mostly to the head of each other.
Hatton landed a very solid left to the jaw of Mayweather that clearly
stunned him. It was a close round, but on my scorecard, I gave round
one to Ricky Hatton.
Again, Hatton came out the aggressor for round two. He was cutting the
ring off very nicely and was able to keep Floyd near the ropes or
corners, landing punches to both the body and head for most of the
round. Hatton landed a solid left on the side of Floyd’s head, sending
the Champion backwards, and the only thing that appeared to keep him on
his feet was his exceptional balance. Mayweather was counter-punching
successfully as Hatton came in throwing his punches, but was only
landing one punch at a time, which kept the round in Ricky’s favor.
Floyd was also holding a lot and clearly was not fighting “his” fight.
This was a very good round for Ricky Hatton.
Floyd Mayweather started round three pedaling away on his bicycle
attempting to bring the fight back to his preferred style.......at HIS
arm’s length away. He began throwing extremely accurate counter-punches
in twos and threes instead of one at a time like the way he did in the
first two rounds. Hatton however was going to have nothing of this.
Again, Ricky was able to cut the ring off and keep the round and fight
very close. He landed several solid left-right combinations to both the
head and body of Mayweather. (It’s important to note that referee Joe
Cortez, whom I normally think does a great job, was “over-refereeing”
this fight. Every time Hatton brought the fight in close, Cortez would
separate them. This move was clearly in Mayweather’s favor and I
personally thought it to be very poor refereeing). Towards the end of
the round, Mayweather landed back-to-back rights that opened up a cut
over Hatton’s right eye. Although this round was very close and
honestly could have gone either way, I gave the round to Hatton because
I felt he was still the aggressor and landed more punches, and most
importantly, the harder ones.
Even though Hatton came out the aggressor for the fourth round, it was
Mayweather who began to turn up the heat. As he was being attacked
against the ropes, Floyd was able to counter punch very well, landing
several left-right-left combinations square on Hatton’s face, forcing
the fight into open waters. The more Hatton pressed, the more punches
Floyd landed. Mayweather clearly took this round.
The fifth round had Mayweather return to holding. Hatton pressed the
fight, attacking Mayweather as he was against the ropes. Floyd was able
to counter, but he was back to throwing one punch at a time as Ricky
kept throwing punches from all angles, landing most. As Mayweather
held, Ricky punched attempting to try and force Floyd to fight and it
seemed that every time this happened, Cortez would break them apart. It
started to visibly frustrate Ricky. The round was close, but I gave the
edge to Hatton.
Hatton continued to batter Mayweather for most of the sixth round. At
one point he had Mayweather against the ropes and as he often does,
Floyd turned his back as Ricky launched a punch, the result was it (the
punch) landed on the back of Mayweather’s head. Referee Joe Cortez
immediately jumped in and took a point away from Hatton. Again, this
was poor refereeing in my opinion.
Although he was warning both fighters for holding, never once was
either fighter warned about hitting behind the head. This was a close
fight and one point was huge. As soon as the round continued, Hatton
proceeded to batter Mayweather, resulting in an even 9-9 round on my
scorecard.
The fight started to change as soon as the seventh round began. Hatton
continued to press the action, but now Floyd Mayweather was countering
with seemly harder punches. They were also coming in multi-punch
barrages and as the seconds ticked on during the round, so did Floyd’s
output level. He landed more punches as well as clearly landing the
harder ones. The round was very entertaining and full of action, but it
was not close. On my card, Floyd won the round easily.
The eighth round picked up where the seventh left off. Now Mayweather
was controlling the fight. Floyd landed a devastating right that
stopped Hatton in his tracks. He also began landing multi-punch
combinations to the head and body of Hatton. Mid-way through the round,
a barrage of punches battered Hatton; his head snapping back and forth
like a speed bag. But rather than cover up, Ricky began throwing
punches back. They were wild, but his best defense was his offense. He
came on strong for the final minute, but it was not enough to win the
round. I gave the round to Mayweather.
The ninth round was a carbon copy of the beginning of the eighth. It
saw Hatton coming in pressing the fight, but Mayweather able to seemly
land punches at will from “his” arm’s length. Again, a close round but
I gave the edge to Mayweather.
The tenth round began the same way as the previous three, Hatton was
pressing the fight and Mayweather was fighting from the outside, when a
CRUSHING left hook sent Hatton crumbling down to the canvas. He was up
and ready to go by the count of eight, but was still in trouble. Hatton
tried to battle back and as he went in for an attack, Mayweather
countered a sluggish right with a quick, crisp and power-packed
left-right-left combination to the jaw of Hatton, sending him down
again. As referee Joe Cortez began to count, he immediately saw that
Ricky Hatton was not going to beat the count and put a halt to the bout.
The official time came at 1:35 of the tenth round, giving Floyd
Mayweather the TKO victory. He retains his WBC & Ring Magazine
Welterweight Titles and improves to 39-0 (25 KOs). After the fight, he
said that he has nothing left to prove in the ring and will now focus
on Promoting Fights. He gave Ricky Hatton and his fans credit and said
it was one of the toughest fights he had been in.
Ricky Hatton loses for the first time in his career, dropping to 43-1
(31 KOs) and will most certainly not only be back, but will be back on
top very quickly, most likely in the 140lb division, where in my
opinion he belongs.
The fight was very entertaining and was fun to watch. I felt that
Hatton was doing everything he needed to to come out with a win, but
Mayweather proved a little too fast and too big for him to overcome. I
also strongly believe that referee Joe Cortez helped Floyd by
constantly breaking them apart AS SOON as the fight went close. This
was clearly an advantage to Mayweather. I think he over-refereed this
bout and as he and Floyd posed for a picture, the smile on Floyd’s face
as he looked at Cortez proved to me that Mayweather too had appreciated
the referee’s actions.