Filipino "Pac Man" Destroys English "Hit Man"

Manny “Pac-Man” Pacquiao annihilated Ricky “The Hitman” Hatton Saturday night to capture both the light welterweight IBO and The Ring championships at the MGM Grand Arena in Las Vegas.

Pacquiao (49-3-2, 37 knockouts) knocked Hatton (45-2, 32 knockouts) down to the canvas twice in the first round before he finished the decided mismatch with a vicious left hand to “The Hitman’s” temple at 2:59 of the second round.

"I didn't have to count," Referee Kenny Bayless said after he took one glance at Hatton, 30, the battered 2005 Ring Magazine Fighter of the Year.

"I'm surprised the fight was so easy," admitted Pacquiao, 30, who became the first Filipino and Asian boxer to win five world titles in five different weight classes. "He was wide open for the right hook. I knew he would be looking for my left."

Pacquiao’s trainer, Freddie Roach, was not at all astounded by “Pac-Man’s” vast supremacy over Hatton.

"The fight was no surprise to me," Roach said. "We know he (Hatton) always pumps his hands before he throws a punch. He's a sucker for the right hook."

“The Mexi-cutioner,” who was nominated the 2006 and 2008 Boxing Writers Association of America Fighter of the Year and entered the pugilistic affair as a 2-1 favorite, cemented his title as the best pound-for-pound boxer in the world with his dismantling of the Englishman hailed as the “Manchester Mexican.”

"Are you happy?" Pacquiao asked his promoter, Bob Arum, in the ring afterward.

"You're going to be the greatest fighter who ever lived," Arum replied.

Despite his evident skills as a pugilist, Pacquiao, a man Time Magazine included as one of the world’s most influential people in its 2009 Heroes & Icons category, has much left to prove in the ring before he can lay stake to Arum’s lofty assertion.

Hours before Pacquiao slaughtered Hatton in their match dubbed The Battle of the East and the West, former WBC welterweight champion Floyd Mayweather, Jr. confirmed that he will come out of a 16-month retirement to fight Juan Manuel Marquez on July 18^th in Sin City.

“Pretty Boy” Floyd (39-0, 25 knockouts), a fighter ESPN.com positioned at #48 on their list of the 50 Greatest Boxers of All-Time, last fought in December of 2007 when he defeated Hatton via TKO in the 10^th round.

Once Mayweather, 32, inevitably defeats Marquez, 35, an epic matchup between “Pretty Boy” and Pacquiao could be scheduled for sometime in early-2010.

“I always do my best in the ring,” said Pacquiao, who is a national hero in the Philippines.

Like few fighters in the annals of the sweet science, Hatton has an enormous and rabid following among his fellow British countrymen.

Throughout every one of his bouts, thousands of shitfaced blokes continuously chant a modified version of the famous Christmas song, “Winter Wonderland,” with the lyrics altered to pledge their support for Hatton.

“There’s only one Ricky Hatton,

One Ricky Hatton,

Walking along,

Singing his song,

Walking in a Hatton wonderland.”

In dramatic and brutal fashion, Pacquiao ensured that Hatton would not walk in a wonderland last weekend.

In fact, because of “The Destroyer’s” speed, agility and shocking strength, Hatton was walking on what HBO boxing commentator Jim Lampley refers to as “queer street.”

Hatton’s obnoxious admirers also enjoy to taunt the native of Manchester’s opponent by reciting a popular English football chant that incorporates the words, “Who are ya?”

Money Mayweather has been on hiatus for more than a year in a sport that is unforgiving to age and rust.

Mayweather had better be mighty cautious if he decides to scrap the relentless Pacquiao in the imminent future.

If he’s at all reckless in the ring against Pacquiao, upon the conclusion of the fight, Mayweather’s flunkies will be asking Pretty Boy, “Who are ya?”

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