By Scott Gilfoid: Ricky Hatton (45-2, 32 KO’s) seems to be in the gambling mood with his career with his decision to fight former WBA World welterweight champion Vyacheslav Senchenko (32-1, 21 KO’s) in his big comeback fight in front of his fellow Brits on November 24th at the Manchester Arena in Manchester, England.

On paper, this isn’t exactly the smartest move that Ricky could be making because he’s not just been out of the ring for three years, but he’s not won a fight in four years and he also put on a mess of weight during the time he was out of the sport in retirement from eating rich foods.

Four years is a long, long time to go between winning fights, believe me. It’s hard to fathom someone being out of the sport for that long and then coming back to fight a guy that just lost his WBA World welterweight title in his last fight in 35-year-old Senchenko. On the positive side, Senchenko is even older than Hatton and was considered by many boxing fans to be a weak paper champion despite his glossy record. It’s hard to argue with that notion, because Senchenko’s resume is one of the weakest I’ve ever seen from a former world champion.

It’s just filled with 2nd and 3rd tier fighters with only one guy, Paulie Malignaggi, someone that you could consider a weaker 1st tier guy. I don’t consider Malignaggi a genuine 1st tier welterweight because I think he’d be blown out by the top guys like Floyd Mayweather Jr., Manny Pacquiao, Andre Berto, Marcos Maidana and Thomas Dulorme, just to name a few.

However, even though Senchenko was one of the weaker champions at 147 within memory, he still was a decent B level fighter and an active one. Senchenko hasn’t been sitting around for three years packing on the pounds, throwing darts and doing little in the way of exercise. He’s been an athlete and has kept himself busy and in top shape.

There’s no question that Hatton is going to be showing the negative affects of all those years away from the sport and all the tonnage that he put on his body. That’s some wear and tear for your body when you stop using it for three years and just let it go the way that Hatton did. I don’t care if he’s still relatively young at 33, his cardiovascular system likely won’t be even close to what it was previously.

As such, I see Hatton being able to fight hard for maybe three rounds before he starts gassing and taking punishment. If he’s not able to score a knockout by that time in the fight then he’s going to be in big trouble because the taller, and much longer-armed Senchenko will be teeing off on Hatton with jabs and right hands to the head and we could see Hatton visiting the canvas two or three times. I wouldn’t be at all surprised if Hatton couldn’t take even the shots from Senchenko, who is hardly a big puncher. The thing is Senchenko is an actual welterweight, a legitimate one, and Hatton is a tiny fighter coming off a long unhealthy layoff from boxing.