(Photo by Al Bello/Getty Images)

Anyone who doesn’t think Manny Pacquiao is the pound for pound best fighter after knocking Ricky Hatton out stone cold in the second round must be delusional.  Granted, Floyd Mayweather, Jr. has come out of retirement to fight Juan Manuel Marquez in July, but he did retire.  PacMan is the king in boxing at this moment.

Hatton came out and did all the things he could NOT do if he expected to win against Pacquiao.  He put on the pressure early in the fight but over pursued Pacquiao putting himself in a terrible defensive position, while Pacquiao moved his head and avoided heavy shots. 

I said after the first 30 seconds of round one that Ricky was not showing any of the boxing skills I thought he’d bring to the ring under the tutelage of Floyd Mayweather, Sr. 

Two knockdowns later, I thought, well, maybe he’ll settle down in the second round and make a fight of it.  Ironically, in some ways he did just that.  While I thought Pacquiao was winning the second round rather easily, Hatton did do better in many respects, mostly in landing a few blows and avoiding a few. 

But Pacquiao caught him with a perfect left hook on the button and as soon as it hit I said the fight is over.  And it was.

My prediction was that Pacquiao would win in the later rounds on a technical knock out because of his speed and superior boxing skills.  Speed kills and Pacquaio's speed killed Hatton.  He simply didn’t have an answer for it as he got caught with shots he didn’t see and eventually succumbed to a perfect killer shot. 

Hatton didn’t do himself any favors with an overly aggressive style that the best of best fighters like Pacquiao can dodge and take advantage of. 

The worst thing I noticed about Hatton’s style in this fight was that he didn’t even given himself enough punching room to land shots in the first round, leaving himself open, allowing Pacquiao to put him on the canvas.

It’s too bad that Pacquiao and Floyd Mayweather, Jr. are not naturally at the same weight.  And Mayweather, being the naturally bigger man, with as much speed and skill as Pacquiao, does not bode well for the PacMan in a fight against him. 

But the fans, and more importantly the money, will be SCREAMING for a Pacquiao versus Mayweather fight if he gets past Marquez, which he should, in July.

There is not much more to say about the Pacquiao-Hatton fight.  The next media storm will be about a Pacquiao-Maywether, Jr. fight which I, for one, will gladly pay to see.

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