Press stand behind Hatton

Floyd Mayweather (R) connects with a solid right-hook on Ricky Hatton in the 10th round of their WBC world welterweight bout at the MGM Grand Garden Arena in Las Vegas on Saturday.Photo: AFP

Despite a knockout victory for American boxer Floyd Mayweather over England's Ricky Hatton, the British press acknowledged Mayweather's dominance but stood behind their "fallen hero" on Monday.
Mayweather knocked Hatton down in the 10th round with a damaging left to the chin as the British fighter was swinging a punch of his own. Hatton rose but the American star followed with a hammering left hook and a dazed Hatton fell moments later.
The American kept the World Boxing Council welterweight crown, and improved to 39-0 when the fight was ended by referee Joe Cortez at 1:35 of the 10th round.
Despite one newspaper's verdict that Hatton was a "fallen hero", they roundly acknowledged that the bout was a one-sided affair throughout, with the Daily Mail reporting that during the fight, "Hatton was playing golf with Tiger Woods, tennis against Roger Federer."
"The truth is that Hatton was annihilated by the best fighter of his generation, and everyone in a 16,700 crowd knew it."
In the view of The Times, "long before Hatton's horizontal finish, Mayweather had proved that chances aplenty were his and that he would welcome them merrily."
"For Hatton to have pushed his challenge through to the tenth was testament to his tenacity and astonishing reserves of courage, but now that his undefeated record is gone, we can reflect that Mayweather truly is the pound-for-pound champion of the world and Hatton, sadly, a considerable way off."
The Independent said that "Time moved slowly and painfully for Hatton in the Las Vegas ring as he tried to fight his way out of a lost cause, but he was caught easily and moved back to the ropes by Mayweather's fists."
"The record books will say one min 35 seconds of round 10 but they will not tell the story of this truly remarkable fight and they will fall desperately short of explaining exactly what went wrong."
There was more adoration of Mayweather's supremacy in The Sun tabloid, which said that the English boxer "was given the harshest lesson of his career as Floyd Mayweather retained his WBC world welterweight title by demonstrating the full depth of his amazing talent."
"The Hitman (Hatton) stumbled and bumbled to his first defeat in 44 contests, the victim of sublime skills and venomous, pinpoint accuracy that knocked him out in the 10th round."