By Scott Gilfoid: Ricky Hatton (45-2, 32 KO’s) is really asking for trouble by coming off a long 3 1/2 year retirement and taking on former WBA welterweight champion Vyacheslav Senchenko (32-1, 21 KO’s) on Saturday night without any kind of tune-up and having recently trimmed off 70 pounds of pure blubber to get down to fighting weight. With all that, Hatton is hinting about going back into retirement if he loses to Senchenko.

Hatton said to thesun.co.uk “I’ll quit if I lose. If the worse happens, so be it. I know I can get up on Sunday morning and look at myself in the mirror and say ‘It didn’t come off, you haven’t got it anymore, so go and be the best promoter and trainer you can be.'”

So let me get this straight. If Hatton gets sparked out by Senchenko on Saturday night, Hatton is going to quit, even though he put himself in a bad situation to begin with by not fighting for 3 1/2 years, not taking any tune-up bouts, and losing a mess of weight. How can Hatton quit when he’s put himself in such position to win the fight in the first place? I can’t think of a worse situation to be in then the position that Hatton is in. He’s literally asking to be beaten.

Who in their right mind loses that kind of weight and comes off long retirement without taking a tune-up? Hatton says he’s a trainer? Wow, I can’t imagine a trainer telling his fighter do put himself in position that Hatton is. If Hatton wants to retire off of a loss to Senchenko so be it, but I don’t think he’s approaching his comeback with the right strategy or outlook. You’re supposed to ease your way back into the sport after a long period away and for a fighter like Hatton with all that weight he took off, it’s not smart to jump right in immediately into the thick of things.

Personally, I don’t see Senchenko as a 1st tier fighter despite the fact that he held the World Boxing Association strap until losing to Paulie Malignaggi earlier this year, but I do think he’s a decent 2nd tier fighter. For a fighter like Hatton, he should be taking on a string of 3rd tier fighters until he builds his skills back up and gets used to fighting without all that weight that he’s been carrying around. That’s how he’s supposed to be doing it.