‘We’re at war’ says Mayweather after Hatton compares him to a child

UNDISPUTED welterweight champion Floyd Mayweather Jr brushed aside Ricky Hatton’s calls for respect ahead of the December 8 showdown between the undefeated boxers and warned the Englishman, “we’re at war”.

The two fighters will touchdown in England this morning for the final legs of a five-day tour to promote their Las Vegas pay-per-view fight. The pair had traded insults in Los Angeles and Mayweather’s family hometown of Grand Rapids, Michigan, before landing in New York City yesterday.

Hatton, the undisputed light-welterweight champion from Manchester with the 43-0 record, used a round-table interview session with reporters before the main press conference to deride his rival’s lack of respect, adding that taking a media tour with the American was “like spending a day with a six-year-old.”

Mayweather, for once, chose not to use his press conference platform to pour scorn on Hatton and his record, which he believes has come without fighting the best fighters. Instead, he told reporters after the staged event: “Listen, I respect tennis, I respect golf, but this is not a gentleman’s sport.

“This is boxing, this is combat and we’re at war.

“So if you have a chance to get one up on your enemy and size him up — that’s what I’m going to do.”

Hatton, who will now be on home turf in London and Manchester to round out the promotional week, had earlier warned Mayweather to match his pre-fight aggression in the ring when the two meet at the MGM Grand in Vegas.

The Mancunian even produced a pair of ear defenders during the obligatory head-to-head photocall after the press conference which he wore as Mayweather continued to taunt him.

“I don’t say very much but this fight has got everything,” Hatton said during the open-air press conference in Manhattan’s Rockefeller Centre sunken garden. “Our styles couldn’t be more different, and as far as personalities go, I think we’re both light years away.

“I don’t think you could put any more on the menu, Floyd is the best pound-for-pound fighter in the world and I’m one of the best pound-for-pound.

“I’m an exciting fighter and never take a backward step but Floyd’s been disrespecting me a fair bit this week but come December 8 I know I’m going to get his respect.

“He’s been disrespecting me at all these press conferences but let’s not talk about it any more. I only ask one thing from Floyd Mayweather – be as aggressive when the bell goes as you are at the press conferences.”

Hatton said he was not daunted about taking the fight at Mayweather’s title weight of 147 pounds, despite a below-par performance in his only previous fight at the weight, when he laboured to beat Luis Collazo on points in Boston in May, 2006.

“In the weeks of that training camp I kept grinning at my trainer Billy Graham because I felt this was my weight.

“But it was first fight moving up to that weight and I made a few mistakes. Carrying that extra weight, my head movement wasn’t as good, my footwork wasn’t as fast and I was just, all-round sluggish really.

“Consequently, I took more punches and I don’t think it was a case of running out of gas, just that I made myself too big and didn’t have my usual zip and speed. I couldn’t move in on my opponent as quickly.

“But I’ve learnt by that mistake.”