By William Mackay: In an article from Setanta Sports, Manny Pacquiao is quoted as “(Ricky’s) time has passed already, so it’s my time.” Talking about kicking a dog while he’s down. Ricky Hatton was humiliated by Manny Pacquiao in a 2nd round knockout last Saturday night, and now finds himself pondering his future options. Pacquiao was far too fast for Hatton, who walked into nearly every punch that Pacquiao threw in the fight without covering up for showing any semblance of defense.

The victory made Pacquiao look like a superstar and Hatton like a faded fighter who stuck around a little too long in the sport.

Pacquiao and Hatton now find themselves at the opposites sides of the spectrum. While Hatton is rumored to be looking at fighting one more time in front of his home audience in Manchester before retiring later this year, Pacquiao, 30, finds himself with a myriad of options with potential big money fights against Floyd Mayweather Jr., Miguel Cotto and Shane Mosley on the horizon.

Pacquiao seemingly has the boxing world in the palm of his hands at this time in his career. Who knows? Perhaps it could have been that way for Hatton had he fought a different fight against Pacquiao. This was a fight that Hatton could ill afford to go in using his old style of brawling, because of Pacquiao’s blistering hand speed, southpaw stance and his big power.

Yet that’s exactly what Hatton appeared to do, as he charged straight at Pacquiao like a little bull, hands down, leading with his chin and trying to land big left hooks. Pacquiao was well prepared for everything that Hatton was going to do in the ring and intercepted Hatton’s telegraphed attacks with powerful right hooks and straight left hands to the head.

It wasn’t long before Hatton was hitting the deck repeatedly in the 1st round, getting knocked down twice in the round. Hatton would later say that he feels that he never recovered from the first punch he was hit with by Pacquiao.

That maybe, but the excuse doesn’t change the fact that Hatton lost the fight and does little to change the minds of many boxing fans that Hatton should hang up his gloves and retire from the sport. If Hatton wanted to prove people wrong, he could fight on and try to beat some credible opponents in the light welterweight division.

However, it seems as if Hatton isn’t going to do that and will be moving on with his career. Perhaps he owes it to himself to at least attempt to see what he has left by fighting a quality light welterweight opponent to see what he has left. After all, Hatton’s only two defeats have come against Pacquiao and Mayweather Jr., two of the best fighters in boxing.

The light welterweight division has no other fighters that even come close to being as good as Pacquiao and Mayweather, which is why Hatton might be selling himself short if he quits so soon without testing his abilities. The difference here is that Hatton has made countless millions in his fights with Pacquiao, Mayweather and to a lesser extent against Paulie Malignaggi, and Ricky doesn’t need the money to continue fighting like most fighters do.