Mayweather-Hatton: Toe to Toe or Dancing With The Stars?

Ricky Hatton tried to hide it, but it was obvious that he was a bit perturbed at the sequence of events that unfolded Monday at Universal Studios Hollywood, where he and Floyd Mayweather Jr. began the promotional tour for their Dec. 8 welterweight championship showdown at MGM Grand in Las Vegas.

First Leonard Ellerbe, on a dais surrounded by reporters and hundreds of fans on the citywalk section of the famed tourist attraction, dumped on Hatton.

“Ricky Hatton, he’s come out, he’s talked all the talk,” said Ellerbe, Mayweather’s longtime adviser. “He’s talked about how unexciting Floyd is, how boring his fights are. But let me tell you one thing Ricky,” Ellerbe said, turning to face a seated Hatton. “Come December the 8th, you in there with the best. It gets no better than Floyd Mayweather. Floyd ain’t Carlos Maussa, he’s not Michael Stewart, he’s not an old Jose Luis Castillo. He’s not even Kostya Tszyu. He’s the best fighter you ever will face. And come that night, all your fans, the great fans who are coming from the UK – because they’re tremendous fans – they will get an opportunity to see you get your ass tore out the frame.”

Ellerbe suggested to Hatton that not only has he never faced anyone the ilke of Mayweather – and he hasn’t – he has never been in a fight that will bask in the limelight like this HBO pay-per-view event will.

“I take nothing away from you,” Ellerbe said, continuing to glare at Hatton, even though it meant craning his neck. “You’re an excellent fighter. You’re undefeated, but once again, there’s two different levels in boxing and this is the highest level you can get to. You’ve done a lot in your career and we respect that. But once you step up in that ring on Dec. 8 and faced with challenge of never being in a live event like this and faced with the best fighter on this planet, you’re gong to be truly disappointed, along with all your thousands and thousands of British fans who are going to come over to support you, who will soon be Mayweather fans that night.”

It’s funny, but Ellerbe may well have had Hatton rattled before Mayweather took the microphone. And when Mayweather (38-0, 24 KOs) did speak, he really wasn’t all that vicious. He said that if Hatton wants a toe-to-toe slugfest, “That’s what I’m going to give you Dec. 8, if that’s what you want. I ain’t going to dance on my toes. I’m going to dance when I go on Dancing with the Stars, so you ain’t gotta worry about me dancing Dec. 8.”

Mayweather then had his partner on Dancing with the Stars, Karina Smirnoff, come up and do a little cha-cha-cha with him. (Smirnoff, incidentally, looked fine).

“Come on up,” he told Smirnoff, “and then I’ll get back to the mic and talk about this bum.”

After showing everyone he could dance a little bit, Mayweather went back to the mic, Smirnoff back to her seat. So far, nothing too bad from Mayweather, who picked up where he left off.

“Kostya Tszyu, he over the hill,” Mayweather said, referring to what is considered Hatton’s biggest victory, an 11th-round technical knockout of Tszyu in June 2005. “Over the hill, man. You a hell of a wrestler, though. Don’t punch and hold because I don’t want you up on me. You don’t gotta come to me, I’m going to come to you.

“What’s the other bum that he fought?” he asked Ellerbe. “He fought so many fighters that’s over the hill, I don’t know. You,” he said, motioning to Hatton, “fixing to go over the hill soon.”

Hatton, 28, had already had his turn to speak. When he did, he was more than respectful in his praise of Mayweather, 30. Hatton did say that he believed he had the “tools to do the job.”

But the damage had already been done by Hatton (43-0, 31 KOs). After he stopped Castillo in the fourth round in June in Las Vegas, Hatton said in a post-fight television interview that there was more action in those four rounds “than you’ve seen in Floyd’s whole career.” That was supposedly enough to draw Mayweather out of a very short retirement. If memory serves correctly, he retired after he won a split decision from Oscar De La Hoya in May. As if Mayweather ever really meant it.

Anyway, here’s the thing: Even though Hatton started it, so to speak, Mayweather, as usual, ultimately crossed the line. After the news conference was over, the fighters did the obligatory face-off. They ended up doing it twice because Mayweather came back for more moments after the initial one had ended. All the while, Mayweather was whispering sweet nothings in Hatton’s ear.

“This goes in one ear and out the other, and I don’t take it personally because he’s done it to everyone he’s fought,” Hatton said afterward during a round table interview with about 10 reporters. “It’s not the way I’d do it. This is a first. Obviously, you’ve got opponents who say, ‘I’ll knock you out,’ and, ‘I’ll do this,’ and, ‘I’ll do that.’ But never really someone, you know, get right in your face, try and intimidate you like that, you know, so it was quite amusing.”

What exactly was Mayweather saying? Hatton was asked.

“Actually, I didn’t hear half of it,” he said. “It was, ‘I’ll beat you like a bitch,’ and, ‘I’ll …’ ”

The second part of that is inappropriate even for the Internet. Unspeakable, if you will By this time, it’s obvious that Hatton was all shook up. Try as he might to hide it, Mayweather had gotten under his skin. He did a decent job of masking his feelings when Mayweather was talking the rather incredible smack, but his face got a bit red. And it probably wasn’t because of the fairly hot sun.

“I think he wants a reaction,” Hatton said of Mayweather’s whispering in his ear. “He must have said to me 15 times, ‘Say something, say something, say something.’ … I just stood there, showed I wasn’t intimidated. I just laughed and smiled at him. I think he wants a reaction. He wants it to be seen that he’s getting under your skin. And when he didn’t get the reaction that he wanted, well, maybe he’ll get a little more vocal as the week goes on.”

The press tour continued Tuesday in Mayweather’s hometown of Grand Rapids, Mich. Today, it will move to New York City. It’s on to London, England on Thursday with the finale set for Hatton’s hometown of Manchester, England on Friday. Tell you what, Mayweather better watch it in England. The folks there are some fanatical followers of boxing, and they love Hatton, whose fans numbering in the thousands follow him near and far.

Whereas Mayweather has always had trouble appealing to his public here in the U.S., Hatton has had no such problem with his in the UK. Hatton, getting in perhaps the best dig at the end of the day, said he knows part of the reason why.

“I think the fans follow me because I don’t do that crap,” he said, referring to the vulgarities he said Mayweather uttered in his ear. “I’m just like a man of the people. I

don’t showboat, I don’t say too much. I mix with the public. You know, the fans probably see me as their mate, not just a British fighter that’s going over here to fight the best fighter in the world. They probably see me as their mate probably because of the way I fight, but I think also it’s because of the way I am, really.”

Mayweather could learn a thing or two from Hatton.