By Scott Gilfoid: Earlier today, Ricky Hatton finally cleared the air by giving boxing fans the word that he plans on fighting one or two more fights. So far, Hatton has mentioned IBF light welterweight champion Juan Urango as one of the names that he is considering a fight against. I seriously doubt that Hatton will fight Urango, though, because Juan has a unification bout coming up in March against WBC light welterweight champion Devon Alexander and I expect Urango to lose that fight and lose it badly against the young, 22-year-old Alexander.

So unless Hatton wants to fight someone who is coming off a one-sided loss, he might be better of thinking about someone else to fight. Hatton says “It’s got to be a top-10 ranked, pound-for-pound fighter or a world champion. I’ve boxed at such a high level and I could not have one more fight and people look at me and go, ‘He’s just had this fight just to knock someone over and end on top’. I want people to say, ‘Give Ricky his credit – he finished at the top.”

That’s really admirable. Well, I would advise Hatton to look at fighting WBO light welterweight champion Timothy Bradley if he wants to take on a top pound for pound fighter. I think Hatton would lose, of course, but at least he at least would be facing a top pound for pound fighter and impressing fans by going out on his shield one final time.

“After the Mayweather defeat [in December 2007], I jumped into action straight away and I didn’t really perform my best. But this time I’ve had a good rest, recharged the batteries and had a really good think; put that last fight really behind me and I’m happy to get back at it now.”

I don’t really know whether Hatton would have been better off taking time off after the Mayweather fight or not. I think it’s a good thing to take time off after a knockout loss, but I don’t if a fighter is going to balloon up in weight like Hatton has done recently after his 2nd round knockout loss to Manny Pacquiao. That’s not good for you.

In that case, I’d have recommended for Hatton to have done exactly what he did, which is stay busy and get right back in the ring. It wasn’t so much that he didn’t have time off that affected him in his fights with Juan Lazcano and Pacquiao, in my view. It’s that Hatton fought in a reckless manner by trying to slug without covering up and protecting himself. You can’t fight like that for long without it hurting you, especially when facing top tier opponents.

Hatton says “I’m going to have one more fight, maybe two more fights – it all depends on the performance of the first fight. It’s always hard coming back. It would be very foolish of me to say, ‘Two more fights, three more fights.’ If Hatton chooses a light touch, I think he’ll get the confidence to fight again.

But once Hatton takes on a dangerous fighter like Bradley, Alexander or Marcos Maidana, I see him losing badly by knockout. At that point, I imagine that Hatton will retire. I just hope that with all this talk about wanting to fight a top pound for pound fighter that Hatton doesn’t select some fringe contender and then crow about how it after he beats them. I want to see Hatton take on the best like he says.