By William Mackay: When Ricky Hatton does finally decide to make his comeback there’s no shortage of potential opponents that Hatton can fight. The bad part is that few of them are hugely popular fighters outside of their home cities. Juan Diaz, the former lightweight champion, is a case in point. He’s hugely popular in Texas, but much less so around the rest of the U.S.

For Hatton, Diaz would be a good option among many others for him to make a comeback against in the near future. What makes Diaz such a good option is that he has little power and a small frame for a light welterweight.

This is a fighter that Hatton could very likely beat up and knockout with ease. Diaz may have been a terror at lightweight, but at light welterweight he looks small and not particularly powerful at that weight. The power is the biggest concern.

Hatton needs to be careful whom he fights next because there’s question marks about his chin after his 2nd round knockout against Manny Pacquiao last May. Hatton was out cold for three minutes after running into a left hand from Pacquiao. Naturally, after a knockout like this there’s concern about whether Hatton is able to take additional big shots in the future without being knocked out again.

This is why Hatton needs to be careful in his opponent selection to avoid facing a knockout threat immediately. Diaz, a volume puncher, would be perfect in that he can’t punch all that hard.

Zab Judah, Nate Campbell and Junior Witter are other options for Hatton to fight next. Judah, 31, would be a good opponent mainly because of his name value. Judah is at the age where he’s beginning to show a lot of wear and tear and has lost many of his recent fights.

There’s no question that Judah would be dangerous for seven or eight rounds because of his quickness, which is along the same as Pacquiao, but Judah has stamina problems. Hatton can probably get to Judah by the 9th round and take him out with some hard body shots. The key to beating Judah is to start working on his body early in the fight and then by the 6th round, Judah will start wearing down and losing his legs. Hatton could then have his way with Judah and hit him at will until he ends up quitting on his stool.

Nate Campbell is another halfway decent option. He’s just moved up from lightweight but he looks slow for a light welterweight. His accuracy looked bad in his fight with Timothy Bradley most recently, and I can see Hatton picking him apart with big body shots. The danger of fighting Campbell, however, is that he sometimes comes in with his head and down and there’s a possibility of getting cut from a head clash. That would be something that I would be wary about in fighting Campbell.

Witter may be tainted a little because of his recent quit job against Devon Alexander, but he still remains an intriguing opponent for Hatton. Witter still has good skills and would serve as the perfect opponent for Hatton to get a good tune-up against. Witter appears to have lost some of his speed in the past few years, making him much less dangerous than he was before. Hatton never had much desire to fight Witter while he was in his prime, which I don’t blame him for not wanting.

But right now, Witter’s age has diminished his talents to a point where Hatton needed worry so much. It’s probably still not a fighter that Hatton would be comfortable to fight, but if Hatton can’t beat Witter at this point in Junior’s career, then there’s no point in Hatton trying to fight on because Alexander and Bradley are clearly better than Witter as they already proved.

There’s also Amir Khan, who is very eager to fight Hatton. Khan is a great option because of his weak chin and his little experience against top level opposition.