Floyd Mayweather Kayoed Ricky Hatton On This Night 2007

One of the most successful and antagonistic championship fighters of the 2000s had to withstand quite a challenge from a British hero 13 years ago tonight. But in the end, just like all of his other fights, Floyd Mayweather, Jr. found a way to win, emphatically in this case.

The night was December 8th, 2007, as Mayweather had signed on to fight England’s Ricky “Hitman” Hatton at the MGM Grand in Las Vegas, Nevada defending his WBC Welterweight title for the first time.

“Money” Mayweather, 38-0 coming into that night, was actually coming back down in weight to 147 lb. after having moved up to defeat immensely popular legend Oscar De La Hoya by a narrow split decision in May for the WBC’s Jr. Middleweight title.

And, in this bout, the 43-0 at the time Hatton brought thousands of animated British fans to boost him him in the desert for this battle.

HBO PPV was on the call in the U.S. with Jim Lampley, Hall of Fame trainer Emmanuel Steward and Larry Merchant on the mics and nearly 1 million PPVs were sold in North America. Re-live their call of the tough contest, as Hatton pushed Mayweather into the later rounds.

That’s when Floyd finally caught up to him and the end came quickly in the 10th.

Re-live it here:

The Flamboyant side of Mayweather had come out when he came to the ring being lead by his fellow competitors on the Reality TV show, “Dancing with the Stars” that they had all participated in together earlier in the Fall- NBA owner Mark Cuban, Las Vegas Entertainer Wayne Newton and Indy Car driver-Indy 500 winner, Helio Castroneves.

They were each carrying one of Floyd’s many World Title belts.  And Bruce Springsteen’s “Born in the USA” blared over the PA.

The fight itself would be a challenge. The singing and chanting British fight fans seemed to inspire Hatton as he hung in with Mayweather through the middle of the bout.

Here’s part of the recap that the AP had that night of Mayweather’s gutty 10th round KO,

“Mayweather used precision punches to wear down the challenger for his 147-round crown. Hatton kept trying to get inside and score points, but Mayweather had an answer for everything he did.

The end came after Mayweather landed a crushing left hook that dropped Hatton on his back in Mayweather’s corner. Hatton got up at the count of eight, but Mayweather almost immediately got him on the ropes and landed another flurry of punches to the head.

Hatton went down almost on a delayed reaction, while at the same time referee Joe Cortez moved in to stop the fight and Hatton’s corner threw in the towel at 1:35 of the round.

“I knew it was going to be tough,” Mayweather said. “That’s why I didn’t do anything halfway. He was definitely the toughest competitor I’ve ever faced.” 

Mayweather’s run to an eventual 50-0 pro finish included beating Miguel Cotto, Canelo Alvarez and eventually, Manny Pacquiao along the way.

Hatton, who had been a 140 lb. World champ for two and half years previously, won his next two fights but was destroyed by Pacquiao by one thunderous left in May of 2009 and finally a loss to a little known Ukranian contender by KO in November of that year and abruptly retired at 45-3.

And his down fall started when “Pretty Boy” Floyd, proved he was a big enough puncher to defend his title.