By William Mackay: World Boxing Association heavyweight champion David Haye is all for Ricky Hatton making a comeback. In an article at the Manchester Evening News, Haye, 29, said “I think its great Ricky has decided to make a comeback. Whatever he feels he needs to do I will support him 100 percent. If he wanted to retire I would support that, too.” It’s nice that Haye is backing the 31-year-old Hatton for his comeback try, but it doesn’t mean much because Haye won’t be the one that has to take the shots for Hatton in the ring.

Hatton, a former IBF light welterweight and WBA welterweight champion, has been stopped in two out of his last four fights with his only wins coming against the weak punching Paulie Malignaggi. In his last fight, Hatton was stopped in the 2nd round by Manny Pacquiao in May, a fight in which Hatton was knocked down three times in the fight and ultimately knocked out for four minutes in the 2nd. Hatton, after a lot of soul searching, has decided to make a comeback in June against possibly Juan Manuel Marquez, Michael Katsidis or Vyacheslav Senchenko.

Haye says that he plans on being at ringside to see Hatton’s next fight. What Haye doesn’t say is whether or not he thinks it’s a good idea for Hatton to continue fighting. Some boxing fans and writers think that Hatton should retire after his latest defeat. It’s a debatable subject, to be sure. Hatton has made enough money to live the rest of his life without having to worry about monetary problems, and doesn’t need to continue fighting like other boxers.

However, Hatton wants to end his career on a high note by beating a champion and/or pound for pound fighter. Haye thinks that Hatton is still a good draw as far as bringing in boxing fans in high numbers, saying “You can be sure that whenever he fights, Ricky is going to draw a big crowd. He will give a good nights’ entertainment and the one thing he can count on is me being ringside for that fight.” Haye doesn’t say whether he thinks Hatton will beat whoever he ends up facing. That’s something I would have liked to have heard from him.

As for Haye’s future plans, he will be making his first defense of his WBA heavyweight title on April 3rd against 38-year-old former two heavyweight champion John Ruiz at M.E.N. Arena, Manchester, Lancashire. This is an ideal situation for Haye, because Ruiz has little power, is slow of foot, and is getting up there in age. If Haye was forced to defend his title against other top contenders like Alexander Povetkin, Odlanier Solis, Denis Boytsov, Eddie Chambers, Chris Arreola, Samuel Peter or Ruslan Chagaev, there would be a good chance that Haye could lose the fight.

Those guys all can punch a little and have good chins for the most part. Even Ruiz may have enough left to take Haye out if he can catch him with a good shot during the fight. Haye, thus far, hasn’t been the dynamo at the heavyweight level that he was while fighting as a cruiserweight. Haye needs to win this fight if he wants to move forward for better paying bouts against 45-year-old light heavyweight Bernard Hopkins and WBC heavyweight champion Vitali Klitschko.