OpinionPacman should call it a day, his legacy is secure

For such a brutal sport, boxing can be so damn sexy. A night at the fights is like few other sporting events. From scintillatingly attractive femmes to crusty curmudgeons, the boxing scene runs the gamut and a good card is going to be a memorable and colourful affair.

Tuesday night’s “Road To Glory”  bill in Hong Kong was no exception. Pugs and pug wannabes, suits, ties, dapper cats and dapper kittens, ring girls, copious amounts of beer and a ribald crowd of a couple of thousand eating it up. Who knew Hong Kong had it in it for such a riotous night of real fights?

icky Hatton, that’s who. The former welterweight champion from England is now in the fight biz and promoted his first card in Asia featuring  Hong Kong hero Rex Tso Sing-yu with a  10th-round TKO over Kyrgyzstan’s Timur Shailezov  for the Asian flyweight title in a ridiculously entertaining slugfest.

The amiable Hatton hopes to bring more of these cards  to Asia and Hong Kong is high on his list. He wears his career like a badge.  His face says it all – boxer. A few years back most of the features on that face were re-arranged by Manny Pacquiao in a brutal two-round knockout that left Hatton in such rough shape he eventually admitted  he almost committed suicide after losing.

The fact that Hatton – composed, charming and business-like promoter  – brought his first big card to Asia two days after Pacquiao absorbed his worst career beating in a shocking sixth-round knockout to Mexican Juan Manuel Marquez  was lost on no one.

So much of the talk on the night centred on the fate of the Filipino demi-god. Hatton, for one, hopes   Pacman calls it a day. “The only advice I could give Manny Pacquiao is  his legacy is already secured,” he said. “The thing is, with us fighters,  there is always one more fight. What’s he going to achieve by having one more fight? Probably nothing. He’s an eight-weight  world champion. There’s nothing more to be said.”