By Nate Anderson: Ricky Hatton has come out saying that he wants to face Oscar De La Hoya or Manny Pacquiao in 2009 – whoever the winner if of their December 6th bout. Hatton, 29, has a fight with Paulie Malignaggi on November 22nd, but once that fight is complete, Hatton wants to go after the big money fights. He previously had a chance to fight De La Hoya but Hatton declined because he wanted to get a shot at winning the IBF light welterweight. Many people thought Hatton had slipped his lid when he chose to decline what would have been a huge paying bout with De La Hoya for a fight with the much less popular Malignaggi, who is mainly popular on the East coast of the United States.

Hatton had his reasons, the most important being that he wanted to win back his old IBF title. Regrettably, he appears to be now fighting Malignaggi for nothing, because his IBF title will no longer be at stake as he reportedly vacated the title. Hatton will now have to be satisfied with just getting the win over Malignaggi, and be focused on not making any slip ups which might ruin his chance potentially of fighting either De La Hoya or Pacquiao. If Hatton is successful in defeating Malignaggi and is able to land a fight with De La Hoya, there’s the question of who be Hatton’s trainer. Currently, Hatton is being trained by Floyd Mayweather Sr., who has been De La Hoya’s trainer for an extensive amount of time.

Hatton may not have a choice in the matter, though, because Mayweather Sr. might go where the money is and with De La Hoya, he would probably getting well paid for his efforts. Although personally, I think a trainer is less important in a fight between De La Hoya and Hatton, because both of them already know how to fight and can analyze an opponent without special assistance from a trainer. For the most part, the trainer position for either fighter is probably more of physical trainer than a real trainer in terms of teaching.

Hatton has problems with his defense, which is well understood by himself, but against a tall fighter like De La Hoya, the 5’6″ Hatton would be in a situation where boxing ability would have little to do with him winning the fight. Due to his huge size disadvantage, Hatton’s only real chance at winning, it seems, is to go after De La Hoya hard from the start of the fight and hope that he doesn’t get hit with one of his big left hooks.

When Hatton originally turned down a fight with De La Hoya, it left the Mexican star scrambling for an opponent. Seemingly without a whole lot of alternatives other than to take on one of the dangerous welterweights like Antonio Margarito, Miguel Cotto or Paul Williams, all of which would probably not only beat Oscar but beat very possibly beat him into a coma, De La Hoya decided on taking on the much smaller Pacquiao. It was a move that had led to a whole lot of criticism for De La Hoya, but unfortunately he had few other appealing opponents after Hatton opted not to fight him.

If Hatton can defeat both Malignaggi and De La Hoya, he will have given himself a huge boost up in rebuilding his reputation as being one of the best fighters in boxing, while at the same time giving his legacy a shot in the arm. A win over De La Hoya would set Hatton up for other big fights if he were to choose, possibly against a slightly tarnished Pacquiao, Miguel Cotto or Nate Campbell. Margarito would probably be a little too large for Hatton, but then again if Hatton were to do well against De La Hoya, there shouldn’t be any reason why he wouldn’t also do well against Margarito. After all, they’re both almost identical in size and power.