Harty's shock at disgraceful British boxing fans
LONG before Ricky Hatton climbed into the ring at the MGM Garden Arena in Las Vegas on Sunday morning, the anticipation and excitement invoked the words of our great scribe, Charles Dickens. "It was the best of times, it was the worst of times".
The great atmosphere at Friday's weigh-in became more akin to a football match.
The usual posturing, pushing and shoving from the two fighters was compounded when promoter Oscar Del Hoya brought Vegas's elderly and highly respected premier bookmaker to the stage.
At possibly his last big Vegas fight experience, in the honoured tradition, he was invited to read the fight odds.
He got as far as saying: "Gentleman I have some information for you" before being drowned out with a chorus of "Who the ****ing hell are you?"
But hours later, perhaps worse was to come.
In a city that never sleeps, the behaviour of British fight fans managed to get two bars at Caesars Palace and the MGM closed in the early hours of Saturday morning.
The bar tender at Caesars told us that the only time the Galleria Bar had ever shut before was on the day of the September 11 attacks.
Returning to the Dickens quote, our party of 18 from Worthing were having a great time.
We even ended up meeting the 1970s New Faces winner Patti Boulaye, who now works as part of the Caesars Palace entertainment staff.
But as the fight approached, we all felt that as enjoyable and unforgettable as the experience was, we were in a tinderbox.
We made our way to the arena, and an electric atmosphere, but another major blip came with the singing of the national anthems.
Sir Tom Jones went first with ours and brought the house down.
But then sections of the support disgracefully drowned out the "Star Spangled Banner" with a chorus of boos.
Over the whole weekend, and all that went on, this upset the American people the most.
Driving back to the airport, we almost got a "headmaster-like" lecture from our cabbie, about how insulting it all was.
Bearing in mind how many conflicts our two countries had fought together, who can argue?
Back to fight night, it was time for the fighters to make their way into the ring and, to my mind, the first mistake by the Hatton camp.
With his fighter approaching the biggest test of his career, Ricky's trainer Billy Graham got embroiled in a heated discussion with TV personnel about the location of equipment outside the ring.
It got to the point when Ricky had to calm him down, when Graham should have been focusing his fighter.
Outside the ring, anything that had gone on before, paled into insignificance.
I have to state that the people sitting behind us in the arena made me ashamed to be British.
The shouting and swearing is almost a pre-requisite, although the almost constant use of the 'c' word crosses the boundary.
At the end of the fight, a young Englishman spat at an American fight fan before throwing half a pint of beer over him, unbelievably all witnessed by the lad's father.
It made us leave the arena long before the post-fight interviews in the ring.
Maybe I sound like a cracked record but what kind of a society have we created when British people can spend money to go abroad and behave like this?
As for Ricky I would like him to retire. He has had a great career, won titles and made himself financially secure.
He had a defining fight which would have made him the best pound-for-pound fighter in the world. But he came up short.
There's no disgrace in losing to a legend, and whatever people think of Mayweather, that's what he is.
And having had the pleasure of working with Ricky at a dinner in Eastbourne, he has a long and financially rewarding career in front of him as an after-dinner speaker.
What do you think?
Did you watch the Hatton fight?
How did you feel about the behaviour of British fans?
Let us know, comment in the space below.
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Tuesday 29 May 2012
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