By William Mackay: Recently, Ricky Hatton (45-2, 32 KO’s) dropped a big hint about staging a comeback bout against Floyd Mayweather Jr., commenting to the BBC Radio Stoke, “If I decide to come back it would need to be a fight to excite me. One person on my hit-list is Floyd Mayweather.” That’s a fight that would obviously excite the millions of Hatton boxing fans out there who still hope that he makes a comeback.
However, I don’t know that this is a fight that is good for boxing or even good for Hatton himself other than giving him the short term gratification of getting another big payday by fighting Mayweather in a mega fight. I don’t see this as good for boxing because Hatton is coming off of a terrible knockout loss to Manny Pacquiao in May, and there’s a good chance that Hatton will get stopped again once the leather gets flying.
As bad as Hatton was knocked out, he really needs to take things slowly and work his way up to a fight against someone like Mayweather. Forget about courage, Hatton would be foolish to fight Mayweather. It would be just as dumb as Hatton’s fight strategy he used against Manny Pacquiao when Hatton tried to go right after Pacquiao and slug with him in the opening round throwing wild left hooks.
Hatton, 30, has rightfully slipped in the light welterweight rankings since his loss to Pacquiao. Hatton is only ranked in the World Boxing Organization right now and is a ranked at a lowly number #8 spot and the World Boxing Association where he’s ranked number #9. For Hatton to go into a fight against Mayweather without a tune-up and without redeeming himself in the boxing public seems to be doing a disservice to boxing fans and to himself.
Instead of looking for that pot of gold, Hatton should try to work his way into a shot against Mayweather by facing some good light welterweights. He doesn’t necessarily need to fight the best ones in the division, because after all Hatton needs to recover from the knockout loss to Pacquiao. But I would like to see Hatton facing some light hitters like Gavin Rees, Paul McCloskey, Junior Witter, Juan Diaz, Zab Judah or Andriy Kotelnik. If Hatton were to face two or three of those fighters and then make a move on a fighter like Mayweather, Hatton would be going a long way towards rebuilding his name with boxing fans and giving his brain a rest from the big punchers.
While we’re on the subject of giving his brain a rest, Hatton should consider abstaining from drinking alcohol until his career is officially over. He doesn’t need that garbage to pollute his system while he’s still fighting. If he wants to drink after his career, then so be it but not while he’s still a professional athlete. I’d give Hatton an excellent chance of beating Kotelnik, Rees, McCloskey, Witter, Diaz and Judah.
If Hatton takes on those fighters, he won’t have to worry about Mayweather going anywhere. Believe me, Mayweather will still be around in a year or two and it’s a fight that will make a lot more money at that time then it will right now because Hatton will have gotten past his knockout loss to Pacquiao.
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