By William Mackay: Yesterday, the news broke that Ricky Hatton is contemplating making a comeback against Floyd Mayweather Jr., next year. Hatton says that he’d rather take on a tough opponent like Mayweather, who has a win over Hatton a couple of years ago. Hatton for some reason didn’t say that he wanted to get a rematch with Manny Pacquiao, however. It’s hard to imagine that Hatton really believes he’s good enough to beat Mayweather, because he’s not looked good since losing to Mayweather by a tenth round stoppage.
It feels as if Hatton is just trying to get one more big payday before he hangs up the gloves for good. Hatton doesn’t really have a lot of options for the truly huge mega fight type dollars that he’s got accustomed to getting in fights against Mayweather and Pacquiao. Hatton would get a less to face fighters like Amir Khan, Timothy Bradley, and Devon Alexander.
The Khan bout would be his biggest moneymaker, but that fight wouldn’t sell well in the U.S., which would limit the amount of money that Hatton can make in a big way. Other than the light Khan, there isn’t many other options out there for the troubled Hatton.
I would much prefer if Hatton would work his way back into things more slowly rather than trying to get a rematch with a talented fighter like Mayweather right now. It gives the impression that Hatton isn’t interested in sticking around for long. A fight against Mayweather at this point in Hatton’s career would probably be disastrous for him.
It doesn’t matter where the fight takes place or who the referee is for the bout, Hatton will likely be bludgeoned by Mayweather in a one-sided fight. The problem is Hatton doesn’t appear to be able to take hard shots like he used to without getting hurt. Hatton might think that he has a good chance to beat Mayweather because Ricky held his own in the first half of their bout in 2007, but I doubt it would go like that in a rematch. Mayweather would destroy Hatton on the inside or the outside, it wouldn’t matter.
Perhaps Hatton’s only chance is if he could hit and wrestle on the inside all night long. However, the only way that Hatton could get away with those types of tactics is if the bout was held in England with a lax referee. I doubt that Mayweather would be even remotely interested in fighting Hatton in England, if he’s even interested in fighting him at all.
Having lost two out of his last four fights, both by knockout, Hatton wouldn’t be in the position to call the shots in a rematch with Mayweather in terms of location for the fight. As such, any rematches between the two fighters would likely take place in the U.S. Hatton won’t be able to fight his kind of inside fight in the U.S. if it involves wrestling for prolonged periods of time. That kind of thing will broken up because it’s boring to watch and not good television.
If Hatton is really interested in fighting Mayweather, he should think seriously about fighting at least a couple of B level fighters before trying to get a shot against Floyd. At least it would give the appearance that Hatton isn’t just trying to get a big money fight before getting out of the sport and at the same time, it would show that he’s still got the chin to compete.
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