21.09.08 – by James Slater – Ricky Hatton’s new assistant trainer, Floyd Mayweather Senior, has been talking about “The Hitman’s” former teacher Billy Graham – and Floyd has had nothing good to say about the man known as “The Preacher.” Working with Hatton ahead of his upcoming fight with Paulie Malignaggi, Mayweather Senior has promised to make Ricky better than ever.
Talking with U.K newspaper The News of The World recently, Mayweather blasted the training abilities of Graham and declared that had he himself been working with Hatton going into the December 2007 mega-fight with his son, Floyd Mayweather Junior, Hatton would very likely have won.
“If I had trained Ricky to fight my son you would have seen a completely different fight,” Mayweather Senior declared. “Ricky was taught nothing for that fight and he had no corner. I can’t wait to get hold of Ricky just to show the difference a good trainer can make. People will see the best Ricky Hatton they have ever seen.”
It’s true, Mayweather and Graham have differing approaches and differing methods when training a fighter, but Floyd Senior has gone further than that and claimed Graham was no teacher and that his legendary “body bag” routine with Hatton was pointless.
“What can you learn from hitting a pillow?” Mayweather asked. “That is what you punch when you’re in a bad mood, not what you hit to prepare for the best fighters. I’ll have two months preparing him and that will be enough time to get him ready for Malignaggi and to bust his ass.”
Mayweather is certainly talking a good fight for Hatton, but what if Ricky were to lose to “The Magic Man?” We’ve just seen what can happen when a new trainer arrives in a fighter’s camp, promising he will make vast improvements to his charge, only for the fighter to fall at the first hurdle with his new coach. Amir Khan and Jorge Rubio, anyone?
I’m not for one minute saying Hatton will meet an in any way similar fate to the one Khan met when he fought for the first time under his new trainer, but the possibility exists that Malignaggi could out-point Hatton. Talk, as we know, is cheap. We don’t even know yet if Mayweather and Hatton will gel as a team. However, to be fair, Ricky has already gone on record as saying he’s been immensely impressed by Mayweather Senior’s talents.
Who knows, the two men may be off to a great and hugely successful working relationship. Still, this doesn’t give Mayweather the right to tear Billy Graham to shreds. After all, Graham has never once criticised Mayweather’s overall abilities as a trainer. Yes, he went on record as saying Floyd Senior was not the right trainer for Ricky Hatton, but on that score he may well be proven correct. Time, and the Malignaggi fight, will tell.