By William Mackay: Unbeaten welterweight contender Kell Brook (28-0, 18 KO’s) perceives 33-year-old Ricky Hatton (45-2, 32 KO’s) to be the tougher fight compared Amir Khan (26-3, 18 KO’s) in judging who he would have a tougher time trying to beat if a mega fight could be put together with him and Khan or Hatton.

Brook told Sky Sports Ringside “I think Ricky would be the harder fight for me. Obviously with all his experience and and he is an all around fighter. He can take a shot and he keeps on coming. He has got a good engine on him.”

I honestly believe that Brook is telling the truth in what he’s saying and not just saying this to get at Khan, who was really working him over during the same Ringside telecast. Up until his losses to Floyd Mayweather Jr. and Manny Pacquiao, Hatton’s chin had always been one of his best assets to his game. His losses to Mayweather and Pacquiao could partly have been caused by Hatton’s bad habit of gaining a lot of weight in between fights and then taking it off rapidly for his fights.

Before he fought both Pacquiao and Mayweather, could have looked really heavy and when he did take the weight off in a short period of time, it left loose folds of skin hanging off his face which made Hatton look like an old despite the fact that he was still quite young.

Brook has an important fight coming up against Hector David Saldivia (41-2, 32 KO’s) on October 20th at the Motorpoint Arena, Sheffield, Yorkshire, United Kingdom. Brook must win this fight to become the mandatory challenger for IBF welterweight champion Randall Bailey. But more importantly, Brook has to win this fight to keep alive his hopes of getting a big money fight against Hatton and Khan. Hatton has already said that he would like to fight Brook in the future after Hatton has picked up a few good wins under his belt.

Khan also said that he wouldn’t mind fighting Brook, albeit once Khan is fighting at 147 and Brook has beaten WBO welterweight champion Tim Bradley to pick up his title.