Throwing Leather

Saturday's light welterweight superfight between Britain's Ricky Hatton and the Philippines' Manny Pacquiao is the biggest fight to hit Vegas since December, when Pacquiao pummeled Oscar De La Hoya into retirement.

Expectations among other boxers and fight writers is that the MGM Grand match will pit two powerhouses flinging fists of fury.

"Somebody's gotta get knocked out," former heavyweight champ Evander Holyfield tells me. "Pacquiao is a good fighter, and the other guy's tough -- flat out tough. It's gonna be great."

"It's gonna be an interesting fight," says Winky Wright, the former light middleweight champ. "Pacquiao -- he shocked everybody by the way he dominated Oscar and stopped him. It was an extraordinary feat.

"And Ricky Hatton -- you always know he's a tough fighter, comes to fight, throws a lot of punches, rough tactics.

"So it's gonna be: Can Manny move around and do what he did to Oscar to Ricky? And Ricky -- I think he's gonna have to bully Pacquiao to take him out of that stick-and-move, jump-in-and-out game."

Wright tells me he has no favorite, especially since both are nice guys.

"You gotta look at it as: There ain't no loser when you're makin' that kind of money. That's the only problem I got with it. I need to be makin' that kind of money."

Paul Williams, the current welterweight champ who just beat Wright in April at Mandalay Bay, also expects a serious bout, but isn't riveted, for professional reasons.

"If I could get a fight with one of them, I'd definitely be more interested in it," Williams says.

Hispanic comedian George Lopez tells me he's just glad Pacquiao, the "Mexi-cutioner" who has ascended by beating up quite a few Mexican icons, isn't scheduled to beat up another.

"He's beat more Mexicans than Mexican moms," Lopez jokes with me. "I'm trying to find somebody who weighs 145 pounds who's Latino to beat up Manny Pacquiao. Unfortunately, we never stop at that weight. The guy who I've picked out who's 145 and who's 5'3" is in second grade right now."

Boxing writer Kieran "Stud Muffin" Mulvaney -- covering Saturday's match for ESPN.com and Reuters -- says the jokey Hatton, "The Hitman," was correct when he cracked last week, "This will be no tickling contest."

"I look for the knockout," Mulvaney says. "It's difficult seeing it go the distance.

"Neither guy knows how to go backward," he says.

What Mulvaney means is, neither fighter steps back defensively so much.

"You can step aside" from a punch, he says. "But if all you know is to go forward, you just attack, attack, attack.

"They'll throw a lot of leather."

Both men have become better boxers over the years, he says. Pacquiao may be the better fighter.

"The one caveat is that he's never fought a 'live body' -- a really good fighter -- higher than 135 pounds," Mulvaney says.

Pacquiao won a title at 130 pounds against a guy who wasn't really world class. Then he beat De La Hoya at 147 pounds, but that was against what Mulvaney calls "the shell of Oscar De La Hoya."

"This is the first time he's faced a world-caliber fighter above 135" pounds, Mulvaney says.

He says Pacquiao's punch is straighter, which means it has less distance to travel. It's quicker. It's key.

Mulvaney expects Hatton could start out cleverly avoiding that punch, but could end up squaring up a little too much after that. Then again, Hatton has been studying film of Pacquiao, so he may be able to deal with the hard straights, Mulvaney says.

Both boxers are strong and can take a tough blow to the face, he says: "They both have pretty solid beards."

If Pacquiao wins, there would be much excitement for him to next fight Vegas' Floyd Mayweather Jr. If Hatton wins, there may be less excitement for him to go against Mayweather, since Hatton already lost one battle to him in a huge marquee match.

But here's where the future could get fascinating. Pacquiao's trainer, Freddie Roach, has helped Pacquiao become a top pound-for-pound fighter. Hatton's trainer is Floyd Mayweather Sr.

So if Hatton wins and rematches against Mayweather Jr., Hatton would likely would have Mayweather's estranged dad in his corner as trainer: Mayweather Sr. vs. Mayweather Jr. How about that for a crazy story line?

Doug Elfman's column appears on Mondays, Tuesdays and Fridays. Contact him at 702-383-0391 or e-mail him at delfman@reviewjournal.com. He also blogs at reviewjournal.com/elfman.