Referee wanted to stop fight in first round

LAS VEGAS – Kenny Bayless, the third man on the ring, knew it was soon gonna be over the moment Ricky Hatton took his first knockdown with under a minute left in the first round.

The American referee was quoted as saying afterwards that he had even thought of stopping the fight after Manny Pacquiao sent Hatton down a second time just before the round ended.

“I thought he was okay after the two knockdowns but I nearly stopped the fight in the first round when I sensed he was already hurt,” said Bayless following Pacquiao’s big win.

Pacquiao’s power is nothing new to Bayless, who was also up in the ring when Pacquiao knocked out Erik Morales in 2006, and floored and defeated Juan Manuel Marquez last year.

And this was no exception as Bayless may have taken a longer walking from the dressing room to the ring than officiating the bout.

After Hatton took that vicious shot and fell flat on his back, Bayless did not bother to count. He knew it was over, and he signalled the end of it at the 2:59 mark of the second round.

“He was totally out and there was no way he was getting up,” he told philboxing.com.

“He needed the immediate assistance of ring doctors, and two ring doctors immediately attended to him while he was still laying on canvas for several minutes,” Bayless added.

Hatton lay on the floor for a couple of minutes, being restrained from getting up, and when he looked okay his handlers had to bring his stool to the center of the ring where he sat for a few more minutes.

Hatton was shown on the giant screens shaking his head, perhaps in disbelief of how powerful Pacquiao really is.

Then he walked away, slowly, as his British fans painfully cheered him out of sight. – Abac Cordero