By Don Caputo

England, June 5th, 2am: The noise is deafening, almost frightening. Chants, screams, whistles, they are all for one man. The crowd, a sea of excitement and anticipation, had erupted into hysteria a few minutes earlier at the first sight of their hero, Ricky ‘The Hitman’ Hatton, as he emerged from the sanctuary of his dressing room to make his way into the ring where his perilous date with destiny is set to take place. When his name is announced, 22,000 fans crammed inside the MEN Arena, Manchester, explode into rapturous cheers that almost bring the roof down. Amid the ear swelling roars, Hatton, trying to disguise his emotions with an expression of steely determination, is only moments away from meeting one of the most feared punchers in recent memory.

 

He moves confidently towards the centre of the ring to receive the referee’s final instructions and to touch gloves with one of the truly great fighters of this generation – a man who the Manchunian openly admits to idolizing. A short sequence of strides and Hatton is standing eyeball-to-eyeball with the king and ruler of his division, Kostya Tszyu. The ferocious champion, completely unfazed by his surroundings, stares menacingly at his challenger with the dead eyes of a ruthless assassin. He is here to destroy.

 

The atmosphere is electric, the tension unbearable. Both fighters return to their side of the ring to await the opening bell. There it is!

 

Both men charge out of their corners and just as their horns are about to lock my eyes open, and I am awake. It takes me a good thirty seconds to realize that I was dreaming. A wave of disappointment then washed over me, I wished that I hadn’t woken up. I had though, and now I have to wait until Saturday night to see what happens when Kostya Tszyu and Ricky Hatton square off for the light-welterweight championship of the world, just like everybody else – including ‘The Hitman.’

 

“Of course he’s got a right hand that could knock me out if he lands it, but I’m not going to stick my chin out there. I have to be cute. My aim is to jump all over him, set a high pace and show lots of movement, loads of variation in my punching, and I need to make it physical. But I have to be clever in how I do it.” said Hatton

 

The general consensus among those in the know is that Tszyu will win via stoppage in a bit of a barn-burner, it will be exiting for as long as it lasts but when the smoke clears, the Australian-based Russian champion will still be holding his belts. In fact, I would even go as far as to say that outside of the perimeter of Manchester, those giving Hatton as much as a prayer can be counted on one hand.

 

I suppose that if one looks at this match up objectively, it is extremely easy to understand why. Tszyu is a murderous puncher and pound-for-pound one of the best in the sport, and has been now for the better part of a decade. Also, still fresh in everyone’s mind is the image of him demolishing number-one contender, Shambra Mitchell, in November of last year – after a lengthy lay-off no less – which served as a timely reminder of just how lethal he can be when adequately provoked. Oh yeah, and he has not lost a fight since 1997. Ask any knowledgeable boxing fan and they will agree, ‘Tszyuperman’ (as he is otherwise known) is a first ballot hall of famer.

 

Hatton on the other hand remains by and large untested, or should I say, more so than he should be after nearly forty fights. Of late we have seen him step up the level of his competition and notch up some pretty decent wins over solid top-ten types, but he has yet to mix with the upper-crust of the division. For most, that is reason enough to chuckle uncontrollably at the very thought of him pulling off the upset this weekend.

 

Forget that Tszyu has only been in the ring twice since 2002, forget that he is fast approaching his thirty-sixth birthday, forget that Ricky Hatton is an undefeated punching machine nine years his junior. All I am hearing is that there is no way Tszyu can lose and that is that. It has actually led a small part of me to question, out of the countless fans residing across the pond that are completely dismissing Hatton’s chances, how many of them have even seen the Briton fight?

 

I know that Showtime televised his battles with Vince Phillips and Ben Tackie, but I find it hard to believe that anyone who has witnessed him in action would not at the very least regard him as a live underdog.

 

It does not matter how good he looked last time out, Tszyu is no longer at the peak of his powers. I accept that it is going to be a very tall order for Hatton to beat him, but I am not ready to add my voice to those predicting his impending doom. Anything can happen on a given night between two world class competitors, especially when one of them is ageing.

 

When was the last time Tszyu was in a truly grueling fight? Hatton is a volume puncher who operates at an almost energizer bunny like pace; if the action goes beyond six rounds it will be very interesting to see if youth prevails. The overshadowing question though is one that we will not know the answer to until after the opening bell sounds – will Hatton be able to stand up to Tszyu’s right hand?

 

Skin the fight down to its bones and in my opinion that is what it comes down to, if he can deal with his power then I really believe this one could go either way. Tszyu is the favorite, but he better not be sleeping on ‘The Hitman.’