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Courtesy of Sky Sports:

Floyd Mayweather and Oscar de la Hoya will face off in boxing's biggest fight for years.

Although full details are yet to be revealed, the pound-for-pound king and arguably the sport's most popular fighter will meet on May 5 at the MGM Grand in Las Vegas.

It will be the biggest showdown since heavyweight kings Lennox Lewis and Mike Tyson met in 2002 and looks like being the last hurrah for both men.

De la Hoya, whose Golden Boy Promotions will stage the fight, has long said he will quit after his next fight, while an emotional Mayweather said he would have one more bout following his recent welterweight world title win over Carlos Baldomir.

It means giving up on his bid to match Oscar's world titles at six different weights, but with de la Hoya now campaigning at middleweight, light-middleweight could be where the two now meet.

Whatever the weight Mayweather, who for all his criticism has never ducked a big name, is delighted at what he sees as the opportunity to establish himself as the world's best - and silence the fans that booed him against Baldomir.

"Oscar De La Hoya, what can I say?" he told boxingtalk.com. "He's a great fighter, he's one of the top fighters in the world today, I'm the top fighter in the world today.

"This is the fight that the fans want, the people want, he wants, I want, so we're going to make it happen."

De la Hoya, who is of course trained by Floyd Snr and has won six world titles from super-feather to middleweight, has not boxed since stopping Ricardo Mayorga in six last May - the Mayweather fight will be only his third in two years.

Would have loved to see Hatton v Mayweather - but alas, it seems destined never to happen.

That would be a hell of a fight.

I am really looking forward to this fight

Imagine training someone to try and beat up your son!

Not going to happen though.  Maybe De La Hoya at his peak, but not now.  Mayweather is too fast and too slick.  De La Hoya has the heart, but he'll need more than that.

Would love to see De La Hoya knock him out though...

..and, would prefer to see Hatton fight either of them.

But the point is he is willing to get someone in the shape to try and do it.

from what I saw in the recent mayweather fight Hatton would maul him. I'm not saying mayweather isn't a great fighter, he is. It's just that I think once Hatton got up close and roughed him up like he does, it'd stop him doing any of the pretty, stylish work other fighters give him time to do.

I think Mayweather would soak up everything Hatton could give him and take the fight on points or force a stopage in the later rounds

I think it will be a very good fight, and difficult to call.  Hatton would be able to put pressure on Mayweather for the full 12 rounds, and although Mayweather's defence is brilliant - it's harder to protect your body.  Hatton would go for his body to look to slow him down.

Mayweather likes to 'avoid' a fight - and if he tried that against Hatton he'd not only have a struggle on his hands, he'd also risk losing round after round to Hatton's aggression and workrate.

It would be an excellent fight.  Shame it will never happen.

Hatton as good as he is is not in PBFs class imo.  He'd be given a boxing lesson

I agree with Adam here. PBF to beat Hatton quite comfortably 2 years ago - but his last fight was truly awful. He was actually booed out of the ring. A Hatton display similar to the Tzsyu fight would see him through now IMHO.

I don't think PBF needs Hatton for his legacy though - more to the point he doesn't want that kind of fight with that kind of risk.

Wasn't it Mayweather who wanted a fight stopped so it went to the scorecards (where he won) once when he got cut or do I have him mixed up with someone else? This would be around five or so years ago, not sure of the year.

If I am correct about this than there is no way he would ever be able to beat Hatton who would tear him a new one.

Mayweather to win in a comfortable points decision.


you heard it here first

Against who - De La Hoya?  That's the only result that anyone will be backing.  Against Hatton - well, it's not going to be anything, as the fight won't happen.  So I'll say Hatton to win by stoppage.

Pacquiao beat Morales.  I hadn't heard much about this fight

http://news.bbc.co.uk/sport1/hi/boxing/6166386.stm

Hatton to fight in Vegas.  Wanted to go out and see him fight in Vegas - but can't that weekend!!

Fortunately, he's said that he doesn't just want to fight there once.  I'll be there for his next defence...

weve been waiting for the news for a few weeks now, was scheduled for Atlanta but thankfully changed to Vegas, Jan 20, will be great fun and fully expect Ricky to be in much better shape that he was in Boston against Collazo.

Mayweather's last fight was not truly awful. What fight were you watching?!

He won everyround and put on a masterclass, Baldomir is limited but was coming off two good upset wins and was "the man" at 147. If you think he was awful because he didn't stop Carlos then fine, but Mayweather is a cautious defensive fighter and doesn't go for the KO, not to mention he injured his hand late in the fight.. I want to see him fight Cotto or Hatton, but Ricky just can't handle  147.

That's why he's going back down to 140 to win a bogus title against a guy who got a gift in his last fight to win the title.  ;yellowcard;

Why's Mayweather fighting De La Hoya then?

The reason Mayweather is fighting Oscar is because of the $$$ and legacy.

Edited for accuracy.

Fair points, Ricky did look pap at 147. Agreed.

However, I'm sick of so called ATG's saying they are an ATG, fight in and fight out, without doing f'all or just going through the motions of beating mandatory fighter after mandatory fighter. How many times can someone beat with world ranked number 3 FFS! Let's have some career defining fights eh? Not PBF Vs an over the hill De La Hoya.

What fighters like Hopkins and PBF don't realise is that your record is not enough. Being a defensive/cautious fighter will never make you the greatest - no matter how technically proficient you are. You've gotta beat the best AND look good doing it.

IMHO PBF wont go near Hatton because it's a risk and a fighter he knows will be tough to handle and in his face.

Well PBF has beaten Castillo & Corrales albeit more than 3 years back.

Baldomir was rated 1 by almost every single ranking including "The Ring" as he beat the undisputed champion Zab Judah so you can't really fault Mayweather for fighting him.

To be honest many fans are getting fed up of Floyd for cherry picking fights recently, but Oscar is a bigger challenge than any other welterweight. Oscar is 33 yes, but is coming off one of the most impressive wins of his career, totally dominating Mayorga. It will be Mayweathers first fight at 154 too. This fight will be big for boxing and do well for Floyd's legacy, shit Hopkins beating Oscar at middleweight did him good. Don''t forget that Oscar brings in more cash from PPV sales and tickets sold at gate, than any other boxer in history, excluding a few heavyweights. This fight is expected to do over 1.5 million PPV's and may even beat Tyson-Holyfield II that did 1.9m.

You can't blame Mayweather for not fighting Hatton as Ricky has turned down the fight in the past, reason being he wanted to build his name up in America on HBO. He also said he would want $13million, which is rediculous. Now it looks like Ricky has missed the boat though as Floyd stated recently that he will be retiring after his fight with Oscar. Definetly premature and will damage his legacy.

When did Hatton turn down Mayweather?  The fight has never been on, as they are on different networks - so the fight has always been unlikely.  Until Hatton beat Tsuyu he wasn't a box office draw in the US, and so Mayweather wouldn't have been interested as the $$$ wouldn't be big enough for him.

$13 million?  Where did that figure originate from?  Hatton has never earnt anywhere near that in a fight.

The figure came from an interview with Hatton on boxingtalk.com I believe. Lots of different sites keep referring to it. Mayweather has expressed his interest in the Hatton fight in the past. If he can get 5mill for Judah then no doubt he would get enough to fight Hatton. It doesn't matter that they are on different networks unless Hatton had a deal with a rival network, like Showtime.. but he didn't.

Hatton's next fight will be his 3rd on HBO  and if they truly wanted the fight, it would have been made by now, or atleast negotiated. If Ricky wanted any part of Mayweather, he wouldn't be moving back down to 140 now would he. His camp has actually said they want a fight with Castillo at 140 next year. Which would be a great fight, even though Castillo is a lightweight (but struggles to make weight)

Did you watch Gatti-Baldomir earlier this year? I can remember Billy Graham (Hattons trainer) being absolutely gutted with the result as they wanted a "superfight" with Gatti instead.

A fight with Ricky Hatton would only be career defining for one man...and it wouldn't be PBF

Not to mention Gatti in '05. Not a bad list eh? lol

I still feel the boxers of the sport will always be remembered behind the fighters though.

Ricky Hatton has never turned down a fight. I remember him being openly critical of frank warrens match making earlier in his career. he wanted a shot at the big boys but for reasons beyond his control, the fights weren't happening. It's not a fighters job to make the fights. they pay people to do that and I'm sure it's not simple.

if you've ever seen training footage of hatton you'll know there'll never be any no such thing as an easy points victory over him. he's trains 15 x 3 minute rounds with Billy Graham wearing a massive full body pad. he hammers it for the full 45 mins. Ricky hasn't got much of a long game (if any at all) but stylish boxers like PBF aren't accustomed to angry mancs within nose biting distance trying to smash a hole in their rib cage.

I remember a lot of amature pundits saying Hatton had no chance against Tszyu. Ricky Hatton will undoubtably be remembered in years to come as one of the greats, and I think he'd fight any big name he could.

I know I bang on about it but the weights in boxing are a joke. light welter weight is 10 st but Hatton will weight almost 11 1/2 st when the bell rings. welterweight fighter will often be over 12st on fight day after weighing in at 10st 7oz. there should be a weigh in on fight day to keep people fighting at the right weight.

as well as fight day weigh ins I think there should be fewer catagories but it'll never happen. boxing people still cling to the belief that half a stone changes the power of a punch. I expect they always will
UFC = Light, Welter, Middle, Light/Heavy, Heavy
Pride = same but no Light/Heavy
with classes like this very few people ever change weight because the jump is too big. anyway, off my soap box

Asking for 13 million = pricing yourself out. This figure has been repeated in many many interviews.

Come on it's blatantly obvious that Hatton doesn't want any part of Mayweather yet, and now it's too late anyway.

Hatton would get outclassed against Mayweather everytime. Did you see his fight with Collazo? They fought on an even keel for 12 rounds, only the knockdown in the 1st won him that fight. Hatton is good with his trainer Billy, but now Graham has left him also.

If Hatton wants to be remembered as an all time great then he better get some more top 5 fighters on his ledger. His 3 moft recent fights.... Maussa, coming off a complete fluke against Vivian Harris, then Collazo undoubtedly the weakest of the 147lb champions. Now he's moving back down as he knows he can't handle the best of 147, and guess what. He's fighting the weakest of the 140lb champions, who got a gift in his last fight to win the belt in the first place.

Boxing will always have more weight classes than UFC & Pride. It's the most global sport, with no lower weight classes there would be no great mexicans/hispanics/asians etc. Boxing could do with cutting down to 12/14 weight classes instead of 17.

For someone who supposedly has never turned down a fight he has very few "names" on his record. Tsyzu is the only world class fighter he has faced and even he was way past his best.  If Hatton wants to be regarded as a great then he will have to start having some proper fights.

but to be fair, Tsyzu said Hatton was his toughest ever opponent.

The most Hatton has ever got from a fight is under £2million.  He wouldn't turn down $13million, in fact he'd fight Mayweather for far less.

I didn't say Hatton turned down 13 million. I said that's what his camp wanted for a fight with Mayweatheror and that would be pricing themselves out. Mayweather is only getting 10million for fighting Oscar De La Hoya. Actually the only guy in boxing right now that could get 13million or more is still Oscar and that's including heavyweights.

Also Fight Academy claimed that Hatton got £3.5mill for fighting Collazo so I don't know where your figure of only £2mill came from.

I'll dig out the quotes that argue against that.  It sounds like the usual boxing/promotion nonsense of one side saying one thing and the other saying another.  The truth is probably something very different.


Thought it was £1.75million - just under $3.5million.

Argue against what exactly? I don't make this shit up lol. Hatton got $6.5 for Collazo

I heard it was 2.95m Euros