By William Mackay: As of now, former IBF light welterweight champion Ricky Hatton (45-2, 32 KO’s) is being quiet about what his future plans might be but he sounds as if he still plans on fighting based on his interview yesterday in which Hatton said “a comeback fight in Cardiff is not off the cards.” It’s doubtful that Hatton being the proud warrior that he is would want to go out the way he did in his last fight against Manny Pacquiao in May, losing by a 2nd round knockout at the MGM Grand, in Las Vegas, Nevada.
A loss like that would be a bitter pill for anyone to have to swallow, especially a fighter like Hatton who has become accustomed to getting his own way in the ring. Lightweight Amir Khan has been mentioned as a potential opponent for Hatton in the past and appears to the main one that British fans want to see him in the ring against.
Khan, 22, would be a great opponent for Hatton, because he offers a lot of the same things that Floyd Mayweather and Pacquiao possess in the way of hand speed and power, but with a lot less sturdy chin than them. Khan would have probably been mowed down by Hatton two years ago before Ricky’s 10th round knockout loss to Mayweather.
However, the combination of age, food and drink, ballooning weight and two losses to Mayweather and Pacquiao seem to have had the effects of making Hatton a much more beatable fighter than he used to be.
While Khan may have a weak chin, as evidenced by his 1st round knockout loss to Breidis Prescott last year, but he’s evolved a great deal since then with the addition of boxing mastermind Freddie Roach, who is keeping Khan from mixing it up nearly as much as he used to do in the earlier part of his career.
Khan might be inexperienced against top flight competition, but he may not need a whole lot of experience if he can keep Hatton at the end of his jab and avoid letting Hatton get in close to land his big shots. As bad as Hatton looked against Pacquiao and Juan Lazcano, it might not take much for Khan to get him out of there.
Roach probably knows what Khan is capable of doing against Hatton and whatever Roach says, I believe him. If he says that Khan will knock Hatton out in the 1st round, I believe that is exactly what will happen, because Roach was dead on correct this last time out with his prediction of an early knockout victory for Pacquiao.
It might be kind of degrading for Hatton to fight someone like Khan due to Amir’s lack of experience, but if Khan can capture the World Boxing Association light welterweight title on July 18th, then that should be more than good enough to make him a credible enough opponent for Hatton.
Certainly, it would be a step down for Hatton, but then again he’s just had his backside handed to him for the 2nd time in the last four fights and he really can’t act as if he’s above Khan at this point. I could see an attitude from Hatton if he were winning against tough fighters like Timothy Bradley, Kendall Holt or Victor Ortiz, but the fact of the matter is that the only wins Hatton has grabbed in the past year has come against weaker opposition like Lazcano and Paulie Malignaggi, both decent fighters but not in the class of Holt or Bradley.
Hatton proved that he’s not in the league of Pacquiao and Mayweather, so now he needs to prove that he can beat a fighter like Khan. The good news is that if Hatton can’t beat him he can learn enough about himself to realize that he needs to retire from boxing and not kid himself any longer.
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