Boxing: Ricky Hatton is dreaming of a sell-out Wembley date

Nov 24 2008 by Simon Lewis, Liverpool Daily Post

RICKY HATTON is targeting a Wembley showdown with either Oscar De la Hoya or Manny Pacquiao following his impressive victory over Paulie Malignaggi.

De La Hoya and Pacquiao will be the next boxers into the MGM Grand Garden Arena ring that Hatton dominated over 10 rounds before Malignaggi’s corner stepped in to stop the fight after just 28 seconds of the 11th.

It was his the 45th victory and 32nd stoppage of his career and its convincing nature – he had been given nine of the previous 10 rounds by all three judges – banished the demons of Hatton’s sole professional defeat, a 10th- round stoppage at welterweight to Floyd Mayweather Jr in the same arena last December.

It also put to rest thoughts that, following a less than spectacular comeback win over Juan Lazcano in May, the ‘Hitman’ was past his sell-by date at the age of 30.

Instead of contemplating retirement, Hatton is now focusing on a fight with either Pacquaio or De La Hoya, who meet on December 6, to re-establish his credentials as one of the top pound-for-pound fighters on the planet.

"Let’s hope it’s the winner of Pacquiao-De La Hoya," Hatton said, when asked about his next opponent. "Who am I to say who will win that? In fact, the winner or the loser will be a good fight to be honest. I’ll be in Vegas for that and watching it with interest and maybe we can get it at Wembley, a 100,000 crowd, and with that performance I’m right there now in the reckoning. It has been mentioned a few times so maybe I will get my wish and become the best pound-for-pound fighter."

Hatton believes a fight against one of those two main draw fighters is the only realistic option for him now he has taken care of Malignaggi, his nearest rival at 140 pounds.

"There’s a lot of good fighters in the junior welterweight division now," he said. "There’s obviously Paulie Malignaggi still, there’s Timothy Bradley and Kendall Holt but with Bradley and Holt, I don’t mean to be disrespectful but they’re not household names yet, they’ve just won their titles so they’re not up there like Manny Pacquiao or Oscar is. With Oscar and Pacquaio you’re looking at two fighters in the pound-for- pound top 10. I said I wouldn’t go up to 147 but if it’s Pacquaio we could do that fight at 140. Oscar’s not boxed at 147 for a bit but I’d like to think with that performance that I’ve put myself firmly in the shop window.

"If I’m going to have maybe a couple of years left at this game, what sort of champion would I be if I turned my back on fighting someone like Oscar or Manny Pacquaio? That’s what Ricky Hatton’s all about, I want to test myself. I fought Floyd Mayweather and I lost to the best pound-for-pound fighter in the world, I had the comeback fight and got rid of all those demons and I’ve come back to Vegas, the scene of the crime, and I’ve done the business against my nearest rival in the division. I think that speaks volumes about what I’m all about."

Hatton believes his performance against Malignaggi has not only restored his self belief but has also answered the critics who believed he would struggle to adapt to a new trainer and also make weight.

"I needed a fight like this to bring my confidence back," he said. "Everyone becomes an expert. They were going on about my weight-making before the Kostya Tszyu fight and that was three and a half years ago but they’re still going on about it.

"I think I needed to go back to basics. My performances were a little bit too 100 miles per hour, there was not really a lot of method to what I was doing, I was just tearing in there.

"I watched the videos and I thought, ‘right, I need somebody to work on my technical side, that’s going to slow me down’.

"I said to myself, ‘Ricky, if you carry on like that you’re going to be finished in six months’ so I looked around and the best man in the world for me was Floyd Mayweather Sr.

"I think he’s showed in seven weeks what he can do for me and what will he do for me in one or two fights, when we’ve got used to each other?

"I’ve done the business against my nearest rival, someone as quick and as talented as Paulie Malignaggi, and to put everything into practice like I did, I can’t really complain too much. I think it was quite a good performance."