By Michael Herron: It appears that De La Hoya and Hatton just can’t get enough of Floyd Mayweather, Jr. Oscar calls him out and gets beat; Ricky calls him out and gets KTFO. What’s surprising is that both of them have excuses, and both claim they want to fight him again. What’s with these guys? Did Mayweather do such a number on them mentally that their pride is hurt? It’s obvious they both want retribution.
Hatton blamed the ref, the weight, the water, and global warming for his loss; and De La Hoya is convinced that if he would have listened to his corner and jabbed more, he would have won.
Let’s go back for a moment. Mayweather gave up every term to De La Hoya—ring, and glove size, weight, fight location, everything–and still won. Hatton had the promotion in his favor; he was the clear fan favorite and media darling both at ringside and in the build-up to the event–and still loss.
Many fans often point out Oscar’s strengths: his size, skills, speed, big left hook, etc. –but in facing Mayweather, his weaknesses are overlooked. For one, Oscar can’t take body shots; secondly, his stamina is less than perfect; and lastly, he does not use the Mayweather defensive style very well. Even Fernando Vargas was able to break through his so-called improved defense. Ricky’s defense, on the other hand, is likely to see no vital improvement in regards to a Mayweather rematch. As expected, these weaknesses were clearly shown in the original match-ups. Mayweather effectively landed body shots that froze Oscar, and a flurry of indefensible combinations set up the knockout of Hatton.
Now what’s the point of this article? Mayweather’s got De La Hoya II coming up, and based on recent interviews with Ricky’s team, Hatton II may be a possibility as well. So while many detest Mayweather for taking these fights, it’s not him that’s making it happen. It’s these two revenge- seeking, pride- suffering, self-centered attractions who can’t accept that they loss to Lil Floyd. At least Judah was able to admit he loss to Mayweather, with no excuses.
What is mind-boggling is that many fans have accepted and internalized these excuses. Its devotees like these that make such rematches possible. Ironically, their support of intrigues like this is what gives rise to what they complain about later; non competitive matches, forgone conclusions, and Pay-Per-View scams of the boxing public. But oh no; fanatics have sympathy for the vanquished, convincing themselves that their hero didn’t really lose, it was the referee, it was the jab, it was the weather, it was the weight, it was the . . . .
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