By William Mackay: The September 19th bout between Matthew Hatton and former light welterweight/welterweight champion Zab Judah could be in doubt because Judah, 31, wants the bout to be fought at light welterweight – his new weight class – rather than at welterweight.

The higher weight would clearly benefit Hatton, who is slightly bigger than Judah and would possibly be able to use his size to his advantage. The bout is supposed to take place on the undercard of the Juan Manuel Marquez vs. Floyd Mayweather bout, but Matthew’s brother, Ricky Hatton who is his promoter, wants the fight to take place at 147 and not 140. Unless one of the two sides gives in, there likely won’t be a fight between them. Matthew Hatton (37-4-1, 14 KO’s) would be making a huge step up in class by fighting Judah and it would be tough bout for him to win.

If this fight doesn’t happen, then Hatton will be moving ahead and fighting Lovemore N’dou September 12th. Even that would present a big step up for Hatton in terms of quality. Hatton recently defeated Ted Bami by a 6th round TKO in March and Ben Tackie by a 10 round unanimous decision in November 2008.

Previous to that, Hatton was easily defeated by Craig Watson in a lopsided 12 round decision loss in May 2008. The Watson fight was Hatton’s toughest opponent of his career and he came up empty in that fight. Since then, Hatton has retooled his offense and has become more of a jabber and is working more on the outside compared to his earlier fighting style.

Hatton looks a lot better since then, but the question is whether he’s improved enough to beat a top fighter like Judah. Hatton would have to take be at his best to beat Judah and show more ability than he has in the past.