---

By James Whittaker

[email protected]

It's the fight of the year.

In the blue corner is the self proclaimed pound-for-pound best fighter on the planet, the cocky, swaggering Las Vegas bad boy Floyd "Pretty Boy' Mayweather.

In the red corner is the down-to-earth brawler from Northern England, a folk hero in his native Manchester, the knock-out king Ricky 'The Hitman' Hatton.

Both are undefeated. Both are excellent fighters. Both are phenomenally dedicated in training.

But the similarities end there.

The contrasts between the two - laid bare in HBO's excellent documentary series Hatton/Mayweather 24/7 - could not be more stark.

The series, which took viewers inside the two training camps in the build up to the fight, showed Hatton training in a disused mill, spending his spare time playing darts with the old-timers at his local pub and wise-cracking with the Manchester wide-boys who have been his friends from day one

Mayweather, meanwhile, reclined in his Vegas mansion hanging out with celebs like 50 Cent and surrounded by the trappings of wealth and celebrity.

The champ also told of his troubled childhood and his journey from ghetto kid to international superstar.

It was emotional stuff at times and the microscopic focus on the personalities in the build up to this fight has made it even more of an event than usual.

The personal investment in the boxers is higher, so the stakes are higher.

In Bermuda, like everywhere else, the audience is pretty polarized as to whom they want to win.

Clarence Hill, who won Bermuda's only Olympic medal at the 1976 Montreal Olympics, is backing Mayweather.

"He talks a lot but he backs it up too. He's got it all put together. He can box, he can protect himself, he can knock you out, he has experience of these type of situations.

"I think it will go the distance but I'm on Mayweather."

Teresa Perozzi, the current middleweight World Champ, reluctantly agreed.

"I don't want Mayweather to win, but I think he will. I'm afraid Hatton's met his match this time.

"If he stood there and really fought with him then maybe, but Mayweather's too clever to do that. I think it will be more technical, more defensive - like the De La Hoya fight.

"He knows not to stand there and brawl with Hatton."

Nelson Bascome, a qualified boxing ref and vice-president of the local association, believes it is simply too close to call.

"It's the fight of the year bar none and, in terms of the professional ranks, it's probably going to be one of the best technically matched fights.

"I believe that if Mayweather doesn't stop him out in the first five or six rounds then it is Hatton's fight. Hatton is a very determined fighter and he gets stronger in the later rounds. Have you seen his knock-out record?

"I've been following both their careers for a long time and I'm still undecided."

Allan 'Forty' Rego, who runs a gym in Warwick, has no such doubts. It's Mayweather all the way.

"When I look at a fight I don't just look at the two men in the ring. I look at the corner and as far as I am concerned there is no-one better than Mayweather's uncle Roger.

"As a fighter they used to call him the Black Mamba. As a coach he's got everything. He's proved it so many times. I don't know that Hatton's team have got that."

Rego said he believed that Mayweather would dominate the fight.

"He's either going to cut him up or he's going to take him to school."

Chucky Renaud is rooting for Hatton - whose rough and ready training gym is not too many steps removed from his own Controversy Gym in the back streets of Spanish Point.

"All the true champs come out of little cubby holes and fight their way to the top.

"I think Mayweather's had his time and we need to see some new blood. I want to see a real good, hard fight but I have to stick with my boy Hatton."

Craig Morfitt, president of the Police Boxing Section, is another one in the Hatton corner.

"As an Englishman I've got to be rooting for Ricky Hatton, that goes without question. It's going to be interesting because you have got two very interesting styles. Hatton's won more fights but there are questions over whether his opponents have been of the same quality.

"It's going to be very close but I think Hatton has the capability to win it."[[In-content Ad]]

---