Boxing - Mayweather Masterclass Set To RETIRE and Khan Demolishes Earl in 72 seconds!..

Bilal Zaidi

I just wanted to add a note on the big fight last night. Unlucky to Ricky Hatton but congratulations to the fine fighter that is Floyd Mayweather. As a British Ricky Hatton fan last night I will be the first to admit that the result was a fair one and Floyd Mayweather showed true class in his performance. Ricky held it up for ten rounds before being knocked out by "our generations greatest boxer". It seems from Mayweather’s comments that he will retire and continue in promoting instead and fair play to him.

He said, "I have achieved everything I wanted in boxing and now it's time for me to go into promotion."

He was in his own nation, Las Vegas, where he now lives and yet it sounded like an England football match at Wembley! However it shows his class that he still managed to perform to an outstanding level. It was a great occasion marked by two great men. My conclusion was that even though Ricky is a fighting peoples champion...he is a FIGHTER compared to Mayweather who is a BOXER in a superior class to Hatton.

He was gracious in his victory and his accuracy in his punches astounded me. His victory over De La Hoya was superb but last night was a master class of a performance. Hats off to Mayweather a true boxing great. It is hard to compare fighters in different weight divisions and in different era's but it was proved last night that in any generation Mayweather would be a top boxer comparable to all the legends of the sport.

It is true to say, what else can he do? He has accomplished all he wants and as he said, "I want to retire from boxing and not let boxing retire me". I wasn't his biggest fan in terms of the way he was so cocky before fights but I have always appreciated his boxing ability. His speed, timing and accuracy was amazing last night. Hatton did well for the first few rounds and I think the hype of the crowd allowed him to take the first few rounds but after that Mayweather came back strongly after stumbling in the first round. He got caught off balance so early on and after that later he turned and face away from Hatton and almost fell out of the ring as Ricky Hatton got penalised for hitting him on the back of his head.

The referee did seem to stop the momentum too often in the opening rounds where Hatton really looked dominant but it is Mayweather who used all his experience and tricks of the trade in maximising his boxing performance. He would keep using his forearm and get in close to calm things down and as Hatton turned around after being penalised to the amusement of Mayweather and the crowd watching it was this moment that I knew Hatton wouldn't make it. The occasion was huge for Hatton, his story coming from a council estate in Manchester to the gilts and glamour of Las Vegas in the "biggest fight of the decade" was beautiful but without the fairytale ending as Mayweather out performed Hatton. Hatton lost his head and Mayweather’s efficiency was admirable, on the inside and outside. His defence was comparable to Rahul Dravid in cricket terms, solid as a wall and not allowing Hatton any space to land many clean shots.

Unlucky Ricky you still did the nation proud with your brave performance and after being knocked down after a flurry of punches he still managed to jump back up…what a warrior!

Also well done to my man Amir Khan who knocked out Graham Earl in 72 seconds! Even though some are saying the referee shouldn’t have stopped the fight it was obvious that Khan simply overwhelmed his opponent and about 12 punches landed in Earl’s face before the ref had to jump in.

It was his biggest fight so far in terms of quality opponent and he breezed through it with flying colours. His hand speed is exceptional but I didn’t like the way he was boxing in his last fight. Continuously keeping his hands down and his face exposed really frustrated me but in the 72 seconds of this bout he didn’t do anything wrong at all. His punches were clean, timed to perfection and landed nicely with awesome power. Good luck to Amir Khan in the next year and I hope he achieves all his goals and more and proves any doubters wrong.

Watch Middlesbrough vs. Arsenal Live Stream From Our Site Here