God Save the Queen, but not Ricky ‘The Hitman’ Hatton. ‘Pretty Boy’ Floyd Mayweather Jr. remained unbeaten and retained his welterweight title with a 10th-round knockout of Hatton in front of a sold out, pro-Britain crowd at the MGM Grand Garden Arena in Las Vegas, Nevada.

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Mayweather (39-0, 25 knockouts) cashed tickets as the $2.10 favorite (bet $210 to win $100), but the biggest odds was ‘Pretty Boy’ winning by 10th-round knockout at 20/1. The only underdog wager that was successful at the betting windows was that the fight would not go 12 rounds, paying out at +190 (bet $100 to win $190). The end of the contest came at 1:35 of the 10th round.

“Tonight’s fight has been an amazing experience,” stated Mayweather. “Ricky Hatton is one hell of a fighter, I have nothing but the utmost respect for him.”

Mayweather dominated the fight with his speed and ring generalship, and really took control of the fight after a controversial episode in the sixth round. Referee Joe Cortez deducted a point from Hatton (43-1) for hitting behind the head although he was never warned. Replays clearly showed that his punch hit the ring ropes and not Mayweather.

“When the point was taken away, I had to push the action,” said Hatton. “I put my foot on the gas after that, but it just didn’t work out.”

'Pretty Boy' put an exclamation point on his status as boxing's best pound-for-pound fighter in the 10th round by knocking down Hatton with a devastating left hook.  Mayweather jumped on the Britain once again and landed a flurry of punches including another left hook that ultimately ended the contest.

Mayweather connected on 39 percent of his punches according to Compubox numbers, throwing a total of 329 punches while landing 129. Hatton wasn’t as accurate, landing just 63 punches out of 372 thrown (17 percent). ‘Pretty Boy’ was dominating on the scorecards as well, winning eight of the nine rounds on two judges’ scorecards and seven out of nine according to the other judge.

The fifth round was Hatton’s best, winning on all three scorecards. The Englishman wanted to turn this event into a slugfest, closing the distance to minimize Mayweather’s advantage in speed. However, outside of this round he was routinely beaten to the punch and never did rock the champion.

“I was doing alright until I slipped,” joked Hatton at the postfight press conference. “It was a bit of a rough and tumble in there, but it’s not a tickling contest.”

Even though the fight was a few miles away from Mayweather’s house, Hatton was far and away the crowd favorite. British fans invaded Las Vegas to support their countryman, taking advantage of the weak dollar against the Euro. Many of those extra Euros moved the betting line from an opening -280 to -210 for Mayweather by the opening bell. Hatton saw his odds go from +240 to +175.

“British fans are unreal,” said Mayweather. “But the deciding factor comes down to the fighters, not who the crowd is cheering for.”

Even Hatton was surprised by the outpouring of support inside the arena, with a four-piece band playing in the upper echelon to rile up the British crowd. The three trumpets and one drum started during the undercard fights to the delight of the crowd, singing repeatedly ‘Go Ricky Hatton’ to the tune of Winter Wonderland.

“I’ve never seen the support from British fans for a fighter that I have seen this week,” said Hatton. “I’m getting a bit sick of that song myself.”

Brad Young can be reached at byoung@vegasinsider.com.