By Sean McDaniel: Boxing fans of Ricky Hatton will be sad to hear that the 31-year-old Hatton still isn’t ready to make a comeback and get back in the ring. It’s now been slightly over a year since Hatton last fought, losing a 2nd round knockout to Manny Pacquiao last year on May 2nd, 2009. Since that time, Hatton’s weight has ballooned up to the 200 pound range with food and drink and he’s show little interest in taking off the massive weight to get back. It would take a ton of exercise and a considerable amount of time for Hatton to trim off all the sludge that he’s put on in the past year and one can’t blame him for not wanting to undertake such a formidable task right now.

In an article at the Zootoday.com, Hatton had this to say about making a comeback: “I’m quite puzzled as to where that came from. I don’t remember saying it. I haven’t made my mind up but, at the minute, I don’t want to go back into training. Not at the moment, unfortunately, which is hard to admit. It was heartbreaking to get beaten by Mayweather and Pacquiao – but I couldn’t live with myself if I went into training half-hearted and got beaten by someone I would’ve whupped a few years ago.”

Hatton looks to have taken his defeats to Mayweather and Pacquiao kind of hard. However, Hatton has nothing to be ashamed of in both of the losses. Hatton fought Mayweather competitively until the 2nd half of the fight and had the fight take place in the UK, with a referee that allowed for infighting, Hatton would have had an excellent chance of beating Mayweather.

It’s surprising that Hatton did as well as he did against Mayweather considering that the referee really wasn’t allowing Hatton to do much fighting on the inside without breaking him over and over. Hatton’s loss to Pacquiao was more of a case of Hatton not following the fight strategy laid out by his trainer Floyd Mayweather Sr. This was a fight where Hatton absolutely needed to follow a tight game plan to the letter if he wanted to win the fight.

Instead, Hatton scraped his trainer’s strategy and went right after Pacquiao trying to slug with him. Pacquiao and his trainer Freddie Roach was expecting for Hatton to do this. Pacquiao then countered Hatton with a straight left hand when Hatton attempted to throw his left hooks. Would the fight had been different had Hatton boxed and picked his spots instead of slugging? I think so. Hatton would have done a lot better and maybe even been able to hurt Pacquiao in the later rounds, but Hatton would have had to fight conservatively to make sure he didn’t get nailed by the quicker Pacquiao.

Still talking about the subject of a comeback, Hatton said “I’m 31, have had 47 tough fights and I’ve been boxing since I was 10. These days, I have a fight before the fight just to get the weight off! Sooner or later, the day comes when you’ve had enough. But once I’ve had a bit of a rest and recharged the batteries, I may miss it, if that fire in the belly comes back.”

Hopefully Hatton does get the fire back in his belly, but he needs to make a decision soon if he want to have any chance at competing on the world level. The longer Hatton waits, the more likely he’ll have little chance of success in his comeback. Amir Khan is getting better, champions Devon Alexander and Timothy Bradley are now at the top of their games and Marcos Maidana remains an obstacle for most of the fighters in the division because of his power. Hatton would have a tough time beating those fighters if he waits much longer.