{"id":273470,"date":"2025-07-19T01:20:13","date_gmt":"2025-07-19T01:20:13","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/273470\/"},"modified":"2025-07-19T01:20:13","modified_gmt":"2025-07-19T01:20:13","slug":"manny-pacquiao-doesnt-hesitate-when-naming-easiest-fight-of-his-glittering-career","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/273470\/","title":{"rendered":"Manny Pacquiao doesn’t hesitate when naming easiest fight of his glittering career"},"content":{"rendered":"

Manny Pacquiao insists his easiest night as a professional came against Ricky Hatton.<\/strong><\/p>\n

The pair squared off back in 2009 in a lineal super lightweight title fight billed as ‘The Battle of East and West’.<\/p>\n

\"Manny<\/a><\/p>\n

3<\/p>\n

Pacquiao was confident he could get Hatton out of there earlyCredit: GETTY<\/p>\n

Hatton<\/a> travelled over to Las Vegas with his army of fans full of the belief that he would spring an upset on boxing’s lone eight-weight world champion.<\/p>\n

However, he proved no match for Pacquiao, who flattened the Mancunian with a dynamite left hand in the second stanza.<\/p>\n

Pacquiao had barely broken a sweat by the time the clubbing blow landed, and it is for this reason that the Filipino icon remembers it as his most straightforward fight.<\/p>\n

“Easiest fight? Hatton,” said Pacquiao when the question was posed to him by boxing broadcaster Dan Canobbio.<\/p>\n

“Before the fight, we knew it was going to happen like that.<\/p>\n

“I studied over and over every day.”<\/p>\n

While Pacquiao looks back on the fight with pride, Hatton doesn’t have much memory of the contest at all.<\/p>\n

‘The Hitman’ told talkSPORT.com earlier this year that although he doesn’t remember the punch landing, it was undoubtedly the hardest he had ever been hit.<\/a><\/p>\n

“When I fought\u00a0Manny Pacquiao<\/a>, I was a little bit past my sell-by date,” he said.<\/p>\n

“Pacquiao was knocking everyone out at the time. It was a very brutal KO, so I’d probably say that one [is the hardest punch] even though I wasn’t at my best.<\/p>\n

\"Pacquiao<\/a><\/p>\n

3<\/p>\n

Pacquiao left Hatton flat on his back when they met in 2009Credit: GETTY\"Hatton<\/a><\/p>\n

3<\/p>\n

Hatton was brutally knocked out in the second roundCredit: Getty<\/p>\n

“The thing is with that Pacquiao punch, I was completely out cold. So you can’t, in many ways, even really remember it.<\/p>\n

“I’ve had a few fights where I’ve had to back myself up and bite down and get through it.<\/p>\n

“But the Pacquiao KO was one of the most devastating fights in history, so I’d have to say that one.”<\/p>\n

Fast forward to 2025, and both boxers, now deep into their forties, are on the verge of respective comebacks.<\/p>\n

Pacquiao is set to box Mario Barrios for the WBC welterweight title on Saturday night<\/a> as he bids to become the second-oldest world champion in boxing history at 46.<\/p>\n

Meanwhile, Hatton is scheduled to square off against 8-3 pro Eisa Al Dah in Dubai on December 2.<\/a><\/p>\n

He will be 47 by the time he steps between the ropes.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Manny Pacquiao insists his easiest night as a professional came against Ricky Hatton. The pair squared off back…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":273471,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[4108],"tags":[1935,4496,27372,94891,79,16,15],"class_list":{"0":"post-273470","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-boxing","8":"tag-boxing","9":"tag-boxing-news","10":"tag-manny-pacquiao","11":"tag-ricky-hatton","12":"tag-sports","13":"tag-uk","14":"tag-united-kingdom"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@uk\/114877276220660856","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/273470","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=273470"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/273470\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/273471"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=273470"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=273470"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=273470"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}