Im not tryin to compare Mayweather to Leonard or Hatton to Duran. BUT, if Floyd fights Hatton the way Leonard faught Duran the first time around, u think Hatton will win?
7 inch reach advantage for Floyd. I see it going like the 2nd SRL - Duran fight. Ricky won't quit, but Graham might have to stop it for him.
Interesting comparison. I think the thing with the first Duran/Leonard fight was that SRL seemed caught off guard by Duran's pressure and body attack. Obviously the second fight was different in that SRL was dead-set on not letting that happen again. Once SRL knew he could be hurt/beaten like that, he never let it happen again. Similarly, PBF has had one of those fights when Castillo nearly beat him. That was years ago and I think PBF knows full-well that he CAN'T allow that scenario to play out again, and will simply avoid it.
If Floyd stands toe to toe with Ricky Hatton, he will lose by decision. He will get outworked, outmuscled, and roughed up. He cannot allow Hatton to sit down on his punches.
Most definitely, Floyd doesn't have Ray's flurry power to get off the ropes and will get consistently nailed when moving along the ropes. The problem is Hatton get Mayweather into the ropes like Duran could do to Leonard with mauling/brawling tactics, fast footwork, a tremendous left hook in the second round after missing with a short right, and a straight right hand in the fourth that had Ray off balance and driven backwards... Duran also was able to put on a second coming after taking leather from the 6th on, came again with short right hand punches in the 9th and held on to the 15th to win 147-145, 146-145, 145-145 if I can remember correctly. Duran was 5'6 1/2'' and Leonard 5'9 1/2'' which is about the height difference between Hatton and Mayweather - the flipside of that is of course the St. Louis fight or the No Mas fight haulted 2:44 seconds into the eight.
Good observation:good If Floyd goes toe to toe and fights off the ropes, he will likely pick and chose his moments to counter. And while he is very accurate off the ropes, he would be allowing Hatton to outwork him. Hatton's workrate would most likely get the attention of the judges and would also give him opportunities/more of a chance to hit Floyd cleanly.
Duran defensively was leagues ahead of Hatton, and his type of pressure wasn't grappling from the clinch it was a like a ****ing thunderstorm coming across the ring. Duran just plain ****ed people up, ending some careers in his path.
Billy Graham himself was on Sky Sports Studio with Johnny Nelson and Nicky Piper for the Live Broadcast of Floyd Mayweather-Arturo Gatti and that was said to be Thunder ( Gatti) vs Lightning ( Mayweather). Mayweather said lightning would beat thunder cause you could hear thunder but not react before lightnin... Anyway, Billy Graham said before the fight that Gatti had his mind strangely away from the fight build-up in Boardwalk Hall, AC, June 25 2005, and he really fought a wrong kinda fight... Graham said he tried to box with Mayweather and was completely out-punched but still that Hatton could beat him and mentioned that the blueprint was the Duran - Leonard fight, that Ricky has faster hands than Duran and that the key would be to take advantage of the moment Floyd takes a step back ( to unload that right hand) to step in twice and get that left hook in, press him into the ropes and work his body and, again, that Floyd was wide open for the left hook upstairs after the body work. I am not making it up, check it out. Sky Sports Studio Talk with Ricky Hatton as a commentator for Sky Sports in AC along with Jim Watt and Ian Darke. I just acknowledge that Arturo came to the fight as Ricky hatton is coming now, 13 thousand behind him in AC, wanting to drive Mayweather into deep waters, brawl him and knock him out but he had the whole fight wrong by presenting his side to Floyd, pretty flat footed, slow getting off, tryin to box with the flashy boxer, just ducking left hooks until Mayweather pushed his head down and punched him with the right uppercut, he complained to Earl Morton and didn't protect himself, Floyd capitalised with a left hook and a knockdown... The rest is history.
