Boxing: Hatton looks at bigger picture

Ricky Hatton has offers from all three of the current world champions at his weight to fight him next year but he has once again insisted that he wants big fights and not baubles. Hatton will be defending his International Boxing Organisation light-welterweight title tomorrow night at the MGM in Las Vegas against New York's Paulie Malignaggi, who decided to relinquish his International Boxing Federation belt to secure the Hatton payday.

"I've won the WBU, the IBF twice, the WBA light-welter and WBA welter and about the last thing I need right now is another belt," said Hatton.

Tim Bradley, the World Boxing Council champion, was in London yesterday to confirm that he would gladly fight Hatton in Manchester, the World Boxing Organisation's Kendall Holt said the same thing yesterday and negotiations have already taken place with the World Boxing Association's Andrey Kotelnik. However, Hatton has refused to waiver from his belief that a good win against Malignaggi puts him firmly in line for a fight against the winner of the showdown between Manny Pacquiao and the sport's main attraction, Oscar De La Hoya, on 6 December. Hatton had De La Hoya in his sights last year before he lost his unbeaten record to Floyd Mayweather Jnr. "My choice after this fight is simple," continued Hatton. "Pacquiao or De La Hoya. They are massive fights and that is where I'm going because that is what makes senses."

Hatton's plans are, according to Malignaggi, delusional and the former champion, is confident that after tomorrow's fight Hatton will be chasing him for a rematch in a desperate effort to salvage something. "I will beat Hatton because I have lived the life on both sides of the ropes and prepared like a true champion," Malignaggi said. "Hatton has taken his eyes off me and that is both disrespectful and stupid. He will lose and then he will want a rematch."

One man with a special interest in the outcome of tomorrow's fight is Bradford's Junior Witter, who has been trying in vain to get Hatton in the ring for six years. Witter, who lost his WBC title to Bradley earlier this year, is convinced that Malignaggi will win because he is mobile, awkward and difficult to hit cleanly.

"Malignaggi will do the job on Hatton that I have been trying to do for a long, long time," Witter said.