Despite losing by a humiliating 10th round TKO to undefeated World Boxing Council welterweight champion Floyd Mayweather, Ricky Hatton (43-1, 31 KOs) still has had tremendous amount of options for potential future opponents, many of which are actively seeking bouts with Hatton in hopes of getting a career-high payday against the British light welterweight. However, so far, Hatton, 29, has given little indication as to who he intends on getting back into the ring against.
One thing he has said, though, is that he plans on fighting at light welterweight (140 lbs), clearly knowing that he’s far too small to compete successfully at welterweight (147 lbs), even though he previously won the World Boxing Association title at welterweight. But, in bouts against Luis Collazo and now Mayweather, Hatton was made to understand that he’s just too undersized to dominate as he’s been used to doing as a light welterweight. Hatton had previously made mention of fighting Oscar De La Hoya, but that fight was mostly conditional based on how Hatton did against Mayweather.
Since he did poorly, Hatton appears to have lost that potential bout, as De La Hoya would gain little by fighting Hatton after being defeated by Mayweather. Of the junior welterweights, champions Junior Witter, Gavin Rees, Paulie Malignaggi and Ricardo Torres are options for opponents. However, Witter has already been essentially ruled out by Hatton, who said that he doesn’t want to fight him because of his constant negative statements that he’s made about about Hatton in the press. That’s a good excuse for Hatton, because Witter would be a very dangerous fight for Hatton to take, and it would be a fight that Hatton would perhaps lose because he doesn’t have the speed or the boxing skills that Witter has.
Torres would be an interesting bout, but because of his lack of name, it might not be worthwhile fighting him. Besides, he hits like horse, and would be almost as dangerous opponent as Witter. Rees would be an option, but because he’s only known in Britain, it would be a bout that would gather little attention in the United States. That leaves Malignaggi, who looked very average in his recent win over Herman Ngoudjo last Saturday. Malignaggi barely escaped with a win, and many people, me included, felt that the bout should have been ruled a draw.
Malignaggi would have big problems with Hatton’s high pressure offense, and with little power to keep Hatton off of him, it would be a long night for Malignaggi. This would appear to be the best option for Hatton to take of all his potential championship bouts in the light welterweight division. Of course, there has been talk of Manny Pacquiao having an interest in fighting Hatton, but that’s not going to happen anytime soon due to Pacquiao’s busy fight schedule. In fighting Maligaggi, Hatton would be getting another big payday, though nothing coming close to the money he made against Mayweather, but it would be good money for relatively easy work.
Malignaggi doesn’t have the power to cause Hatton the type of problems he had against Mayweather, and with his short height and reach, Maligaggi would be forced to contend with Hatton on the inside, where the British fighter could mug him like he’s done with the vast majority of his opponents. Perhaps best of all, the fight would likely occur in England, where Hatton would have a huge 50, 0000 plus fan base to cheer him on, and a referee that would likely let him get away with fouling on the inside.
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