By Scott Gilfoid: Sun Sport is reporting that former light welterweight champion Ricky Hatton is interested in facing WBO welterweight champion Miguel Cotto if he beats Manny Pacquiao this Saturday night. Gosh, that’s pretty shocking news. I thought Hatton was finished. But I guess this is like saying I hope I win the lottery tonight, because I don’t give Cotto any chance of beating Pacquiao on Saturday night, and it sounds like Hatton doesn’t think Cotto will win either.

It takes exceptional boxing skills to beat a great fighter like Pacquiao, and I just think Cotto is tad short in that area. At any rate, Hatton had this to say about fighting Cotto: “If Cotto wins, I don’t see any reason why I wouldn’t fancy a fight with him.” I don’t blame you, Hatton. I’d like to fight Cotto too rather than Pacquiao, especially given how badly beat up Cotto was by Antonio Margarito last year. That sounds like a safe choice.

“I’ve faced the best pound for pound fighters in Floyd Mayweather and Pacquiao, so I’ve never shied away from a challenge,” Hatton says. I agree with Hatton with that, although I would have liked to have seen Hatton fight Junior Witter, Timothy Bradley, Marcos Maidana, Victor Ortiz and Ricardo Torres during his career. Those guys somehow escaped Hatton’s radar for some reason.

I don’t know why Hatton chose to fight Paulie Malignaggi and Juan Lazcano rather than at least one or two of those fighter. I mean, I doubt seriously that Malignaggi would make it out of a fight against Bradley, Maidana, and Ortiz in one piece. The same goes for Lazcano. Heck, I’d settle for Hatton fighting Witter right now, even though Witter quit in his last fight and was stopped. Still think he’d be a good test for Hatton and I’d rather Ricky fight him than Malignaggi or Lazcano.

Hatton says “If Cotto becomes the pound-for-pound king, I don’t see any reason why I couldn’t fight him.’ Yeah, “If” Cotto becomes the pound for pound king. I kind of doubt it. But I’ll go along with Hatton for the fun of it. It would be great if Cotto destroys Pacquiao in one or two rounds, and then immediately calls out Hatton’s name after the fight. That would be a dream come true, I bet.

Hatton could then get that itch again, get off the sofa and start melting off all that weight he’s put on. As big as Hatton is, I seriously question whether he could burn off all that blubber and still be successful in the ring. And I’m not talking about Cotto; I think Hatton would have tremendous problems against anyone in the top 15 in the light welterweight division, and I think Hatton lose to most of the top welterweights fright about now.

Hatton looked small and not especially impressive in his controversial 12 round decision win over Luis Collazo in 2006. Three years later, it would be a minor miracle if Hatton would look better against Cotto, a fighter that clearly is superior to Collazo.

Hatton still thinks he hurt Pacquiao in their fight. Oh man, I don’t know what Hatton is thinking, but he needs to face reality about the loss. Maybe his punches did sting Pacquiao a little, but he got blown out of the water by Pacquiao. All the rest of it doesn’t matter. Nobody expects to get out of a fight without being in a little pain, but that doesn’t mean that Hatton was competitive with Pacquiao or that he would do better in a rematch.

I’d like to see Hatton face Cotto in a fight. It would be like watching a wild animal show where a lion attacks a poor defenseless antelope and eats it up. I think it would be interesting as a spectacle but not much more than that.