Hatton out to prove he’s not ‘past it’

A REJUVENATED Ricky Hatton is aiming to put the record straight against Paulie Malignaggi tonight after admitting he looked like he was “past it” in his last fight.

Hatton, 30, will climb into the ring at the MGM Grand Garden Arena looking to prove he is still the best fighter in the world at junior welterweight following an unimpressive victory over Juan Lazcano at the City of Manchester Stadium in May.

The Englishman had been looking to bounce back from the first professional defeat of his career last December when he was stopped in the 10th round by Floyd Mayweather Jr.

Though his performance against Lazcano was hampered by a chest infection, it failed to raise morale and Hatton parted company with long-time trainer Billy Graham and sought a fresh start with Mayweather’s estranged father Floyd Sr.

The change has worked wonders according to Hatton, who says any talk of him hanging up his gloves is way off beam. “Everybody says to me ‘You’re thinking about retirement’ but I’m not. I don’t want to retire, I love having a fight,” Hatton said.

“I don’t want to retire but you’ve got to be honest with yourself. I lost to Mayweather, there’s no shame in that, but in the Lazcano fight I looked like I was past it. There were reasons. I was ill, I had a terrible chest infection, my sparring partners went home early and I didn’t do half the work, so I was delighted to get through that fight with the performance I put up.

“If I was 100% and I’d put up a performance like that I’d have said it was nothing short of crap.

“My training camp’s been great but if I don’t perform on Saturday then everyone’s going to think, well, Ricky’s a bit....There’s only one person who can sort that out.

“I’m excited about what kind of performance I think I can bring on Saturday.

“I can tell everyone until I’m blue in the teeth about how good my training camp was but you only get judged in the ring.

“I’ve got to do it Saturday night and I think it is coming.”

Hatton, notorious for piling on the pounds between fights, also rejected suggestions he had been struggling to come in under the 140lb limit ahead of last night’s weigh-in after ceasing to work with conditioning coach Kerry Kayes.

“I worked with a good ‘un in Kerry Kayes and I’m 30 years old now and I’ve been doing this a long time,” Hatton said.

“But I’m doing exactly what Kerry told me from a food point of view, from a drinks point of view and he’s said he’ll still be on the end of a phone for any advice I need if I’m overweight.

“But to be honest, I’m 30 years of age now and if I don’t know how to make weight by now and don’t know enough about my body then it’s time to wrap up.

“The only difference is without Kerry I’m not doing as many weights but I’m doing more resistance work in my training.

“And I’m not struggling with my weight. I can hear people say ‘Ricky’s struggling with his weight, he’s not with Kerry’ and I can see them putting up big warning signs about Ricky Fatton’s gonna blow it. That’s not the case.

“I’m the same weight as I’ve always been, about four pounds over now and I’ll just get it down, no problem.”