LAS VEGAS: Ricky Hatton is bluntly honest. That much comes through whether he's assessing his last three performances, past opponents, future opponents or anyone who happens to wander across his field of vision.
As he sat down with a group of reporters at a casino restaurant hours before he was to walk his friend Marco Antonio Barrera into the ring before his match against Juan Manuel Marquez, Hatton let loose with some of those assessments.
The waiter walked into the small room full of reporters to take food and drink orders and Hatton said: "I don't think you're going to get too many orders for salads from this group."
Hatton was in town to support Barrera and to promote his return to Las Vegas in June against Jose Luis Castillo. Here's hoping he has a better run in the ring on his return than he did against Juan Urango back in January.
"My last three performances have been ****," Hatton said. "Certainly not the Ricky Hatton you've come to expect."
Carlos Maussa, Luis Collazo and Urango weren't exactly Floyd Mayweather, Oscar De La Hoya and Castillo. Hatton won, but he didn't look good doing it.
Hatton said Urango didn't throw enough punches to make a good fight.
"The more punches your opponent throws the more gaps and openings he leaves for you to take advantage of,"Hatton said.
Also, Hatton said he was battling a bad head cold, which came from staying confined to his hotel.
For the Castillo fight, Hatton said he and his camp will come to Las Vegas probably a month ahead of time so that he can get acclimated better. He said they plan to rent a house where they can control the temperature setting.
Whatever the case, Hatton will have to raise the level of his performance against Castillo or American boxing fans will start to look at him as a "one-hit wonder".That one hit being a sterling performance against Kostya Tszyu.
"The Castillo fight is more my kind of fight,"Hatton said.
"He's not slippery southpaw or a guy who doesn't throw punches."
Castillo will come right after Hatton and he will throw punches. In short he will try to knock Hatton out, which plays right into Hatton's blood and guts style. Hatton needs to show more of that to the American boxing fans, who are still waiting for him to reproduce the Kostya Tszyu night on U.S. soil.
That was one of the reasons that Hatton fought so hard to come to America. He wanted to fight the best and he wanted to prove that he could produce the same chills and thrills that played to sellout crowds in Manchester. He said that desire to bring his act across the Atlantic Ocean played heavily into his decision to part ways with promoter allegedly.
"Frank did wonderful for me when I was coming up," Hatton said. "He got me the right opponents and moved me along. But when you get to a certain position and you want to see how good you are you have to have the opponents around you. I should have moved up after the Ben Tackie fight."
Hatton said he told Warren that he wanted to fight better opponents and he wanted to do it in America. That battle wound up in court and Hatton moved on to a new promoter.
"I'm living my dream," Hatton said. "I've always wanted to fight champions and unify titles. I was nowhere near that with my former promoter."
While Hatton has gotten his wish to come to America, he has not been matched up against those A-level opponents. He fought Maussa, a gangly and awkward opponent, to unify the 140 pound titles. Then he decided to move up and he fought Collazo, a crafty welterweight who held the WBA welterweight title at the time. But Collazo popped Hatton and nearly KO'ed him in the 12th round of their match and Hatton figured out that he had moved to 147 too quickly. And he fought Urango to regain one of the 140-pound belts he had given up to move up to welterweight.
Two years later, he is finally getting around to an opponent that will challenge him in the way that he wanted to be challenged after the Tackie and Tszyu fights. And if he plays his cards right in Vegas and KO's Castillo, he could be in line to fight Mayweather, Miguel Cotto, Shane Mosley or any of the other tough challenges and names that are out there.
But he's going to have to be more spectacular against the bigger names than he has been against the lesser names in order for anyone to continue to take him serious.
allegedly replies: Ricky is living in cloud cuckoo land when he says that I didn't offer him big fights, either when he was with me or around the time we parted company after the Kostya Tszyu fight. In fact, I said I would pay him the exact same purse he eventually received for the Carlos Maussa fight, which went ahead after he left me.
In writing, I had previously offered him fights with both Floyd Mayweather and Miguel Cotto, which his father declined on his behalf.
Following the Ben Tackie fight, I made an interim WBO light-welterweight world title fight for Ricky against Kelson Pinto, but Pinto pulled out at short notice due to a dispute with his manager, but that was nothing do with me.
I also got Ricky into a position where he could fight then WBA world champion Vivian Harris, but typically Ray Hatton said no.
It was me who insisted that Ricky have a clause in his contract that he fight Junior Witter, and although that fight did not come off because we couldn't get Sky or Showtime to take the fight, the fact it never got off the ground was greeted with relief by Ray Hatton.
That was yet another fight he refused - and his reluctance has been proved by the fact Hatton has continued to show no interest in taking on his biggest domestic rival in the two years since we parted company.
Despite Ray's unwillingness to take the fights Ricky claimed he wanted, I kept trying.
Thanks to my expert guidance, I manoeuvred Ricky into an eliminator which led him to becoming mandatory challenger to Kostya Tszyu, a man regarded as the best pound for pound fighter in the world. He had this opponent in his hometown after I made Kostya Tszyu his biggest ever purse to come to Manchester. Hatton has always made a big noise about going off to America to face top-draw opponents, but he simply hasn't done that since leaving me.
Ricky might have had three world title fights, and of course he had to win these fights and did so with great style, but they have not been against big names, and he has vacated titles so he can pick and choose easy opponents.
Maussa - whom he fought in Sheffield - Luis Collazo and Juan Urango are struggling to be legends in their own households, and Collazo wasn't even ranked in the independent top 10 - he was shown up by Shane Mosely last time around. Of the three Hatton has fought, none are currently in the independent top 15.
Although Ricky has fought in America, he looked far worse then when he was fighting on my promotions, in fact, for once he and I agree - he looked shit.
He says he didn't look good against Urango because of his negative style, but it was Ricky who was holding on for dear life at the end. In fact, he was dreadful.
Next up Ricky takes on Jose Luis Castillo, and while that is a step in the right direction, I'm not sure how much a win will mean because Castillo was terrible last time out. Meanwhile Hatton seems no nearer to fighting Mayweather, his so-called dream fight.
About the only thing that we are in agreement on is the fact that Castillo is make or break, because American press, television and fans are becoming increasingly frustrated and bored.
It appears there's no hope now of Hatton/Warren ever working together again. Was Ricky really offered fights against Mayweather & Cotto?
If Hatton was offered a Cotto fight, and it was at 140lbs, then I feel he should have taken it. Hatton would've had a better chance of beating Cotto at LWW. If Hatton-Cotto does happen, it will be at WW.
I believe FW makes some good points in his reply the the interivew with Ricky.
What do you all think?
...and who hasnt even proved that he's the best 140 boxer in Britain, let alone the world! :x 
