By Eric Thomas: Recently retired six-division champion Oscar De La Hoya is reportedly advising Ricky Hatton not to hang them up so quickly, telling him to that it’s not the end just because he lost a 2nd round TKO to Manny Pacquiao last Saturday night. Obviously, De La Hoya speaks from experience since he’s been beaten six times in his career and kept coming back each until the final loss. However, De La Hoya was never beaten badly until his final fight of his boxing career, an 8th round TKO loss against Pacquiao in December 2008.

De La Hoya’s 9th round stoppage against Bernard Hopkins wasn’t nearly as bad as Hatton’s loss, because De La Hoya was fighting effectively up until he got nailed with a body shot.

With Hatton, though, he caught often in the 1st round by Pacquiao and then knocked down twice in the round. Hatton didn’t do any better in the 2nd, as he was taking hits up until the time he was knocked cold with a left hand by Pacquiao.

De La Hoya still thinks that Hatton is young and feels that he can keep fighting on. Hatton is 30-years-old. However, unlike a lot of similar aged fighters, Hatton has put a lot of extra mileage on his internal odometer by overindulging in food and drink, and often ballooning up in weight between fights.

Having to take off a great deal of weight each before a fight has seemed to decrease Hatton’s effectiveness in the ring in the past two years. It’s one thing getting beaten by Floyd Mayweather Jr. and Pacquiao, but quite another thing to have to struggle to beat Juan Lazcano.

De La Hoya may truly believe that Hatton has more time in his career, but if he’s unable to beat the top fighters in the light welterweight division like Junior Witter, then what choice does Hatton really have? I don’t know that Hatton can take having to settle for fighting non-big name fighters at this point in his career.

Having made a bundle in bouts against Mayweather and now Pacquiao, would Hatton be receptive to the idea of having to battle lesser named fighters? Probably not.

Hatton may be 30, but in reality he could very well be the same age as De La Hoya in terms of physical years on his body. One good thing for Hatton is that he’s faced much softer opposition than De La Hoya and has only recently started stepping up against 1st rate opponents.

Despite losing to Pacquiao, Hatton will likely continue to be a huge PPV star regardless, something that’s not lost on Golden Boy Promotions CEO Richard Schaeffer, who echoed the same thoughts, reminding Hatton that De La Hoya remained a huge PPV star even though he suffered losses periodically.

If Hatton decides to continue fighting, it matters little what De La Hoya and Schaeffer say to make Hatton feel better. If Hatton continues to suffer knock out losses, even against less than world class opposition, then I can see Hatton retiring very fast.

De La Hoya might be able to milk Hatton’s popularity for a little while longer by having him fight some older faded stars, but that’s something that can only be used for a short time before boxing public catches on and begins to turn away in disgust.