02.08.07 – Ray Hatton today told talkSPORT, the UK’s only national commercial speech radio station, that the ‘super-fight’ between son Ricky and welterweight champion “Pretty Boy” Floyd Mayweather, has been on the cards for 18 months. Speaking to Alan Brazil and Graham Beecroft on the Alan Brazil Sports Breakfast Show, Hatton said: “We’ve been talking to people from Mayweather’s camp for 18 months.
“We’ve had dialogue going back as far as that. We’ve had conversations, ‘let’s be careful who the lads fight, try and keep them unbeaten, let’s try and make it over 80 fights’ which is a bit of a record for two unbeaten fighters to get in the ring. But it isn’t that easy in boxing.
“As it was coming up to the Castillo fight and the Oscar De La Hoya fight the conversations did take on a new turn because it was a matter of if Floyd could beat a living legend in Oscar and if Ricky could ‘do’ Castillo, then the fight got even closer.”
Asked by Brazil if Ricky would be piling on the pounds to fight Mayweather at welterweight, Hatton said: “When we fought Luis Collazo, we made a mistake. We tried to make him as big as the guy he was fighting. When you only have a stature of 5’ 7” there are limitations of what weight he can put on before it affects him. We slowed him down. His body was carrying more weight than what it was used to when it was put under excursion in a 12 round fight so his performance dropped off.
“I caused a lot of confusion a few weeks ago when I said that Ricky Hatton wouldn’t be fighting at welterweight. What I actually said was that he may be fighting for titles at welterweight. But he will not be coming in the ring as a welterweight. He’ll be coming in the ring as a light welterweight fighting a welterweight. We won’t to be putting on weight he doesn’t need. We’ve made that mistake once; we won’t be making that mistake again.”