By Michael Lieberman: Former light welterweight champion Ricky Hatton claimed yesterday that he plans on fighting only twice more, against IBF light welterweight champion Paulie Malignaggi, and then against either Manny Pacquiao or Oscar De La Hoya, then he plans on getting out of boxing and retiring immediately after those two fights. According to the BBC, the 29 year-old Hatton feels that it’s time to get out of the sport, that he doesn’t want to “go on forever.” He hasn’t said whom he prefers to fight, Pacquiao or De La Hoya, but if one were to guess, it would probably be the Golden Boy, Oscar De La Hoya, arguably more popular than Pacquiao in the U.S. and in Europe.

However, with so many big fights out there for Hatton, it seems curious that he would choose this time to get out of boxing, just when there are so many options available to him. In a way, it reminds me of Joe Calzaghe and Floyd Mayweather Jr., both of whom hit it big in boxing, making a ton of cash, and then while still at the peak of their game, they both decide to fold up the tent and get out. What’s that all about? If I were to try and get into their mindset, it would seem as if once they’ve reached the top of their game, they become fearful of losing it all, as if the sour taste of a solitary defeat would wash away all that they accomplished in the years that they’ve put into the sport, tarnishing their very lives in the process.

It seems like such a narrow view, a poor way of looking at things, if that is the reasoning for their getting out of the game. Losing isn’t so bad, it’s the label that you put on it, and on yourself that makes it bad. Frankly, I think its silly get out while a fighter is still at the top, just because they’re afraid to lose a fight or two. If it happens, it happens, and they should learn from it and move on. If they truly are at the end of the road, then at least they’ll know it from having lost a few fights in a row, yet by getting out early (while they’re still fighting well), they seem to send a bad message to people and in the process short change themselves.

Hatton has take a lot of heat lately for his last two fights, one his losing fight against Mayweather, the other his struggle to defeat Juan Lazcano. However, Hatton never was a truly dominating fighter even in his best years. Sure, he may have beaten a lot of his opponents fairly easy, but then again he was facing easier competition, being spoon fed soft opposition in England. It was bound to happen that he’d have to finally step up to the plate and face good fighters, because he couldn’t base his whole career off of one win, that against an old, weight drained, rusty Kostya Tszyu.

Hatton had time to prove himself against better fighters early on in his career, against the likes of Junior Witter, to name just one. However, Hatton avoided him, and in the process failed to learn what it is to have to struggle in a fight. To be sure, Witter would have been a fight that Hatton would have taken just as much punishment as he’s taken in his last two fights, maybe more.

At least Hatton would have learned what it’s like to have to actually battle, to scrape by and earn a win the hard way. Instead, he bypassed that option and took the much easier route against weaker, faded fighters like Tszyu and Jose Luis Castillo.

Now, however, that he’s no longer fighting faded fighters, he’s having to win the hard way, and he doesn’t seem to enjoy it very much. The problem is, he skipped over a valuable lesson about himself early on, appearing to fool himself into believing that he’s as good as his ravenous fans think he really is.

The fact of the matter is, he never was as good as they thought, and was just a good fighter, who won the old fashioned way by fighting hard and winning. Now it seems insane for him to get out of boxing just when he’s finally getting a chance to learn about his true ability as a fighter, because he appears to be finally getting an understanding of himself for the first time. He shouldn’t run from it, but that’s what it looks like he’s doing.