Boxing: BBC bid to bring Hatton down to earth

It is easy to see why the BBC would give Audley Harrison's right arm for a fighter like Ricky Hatton. The word is that, in the parlance of the business, they are making themselves busy in the Mancunian's direction.

Though any cheque-waving (said to be worth at least three times the £1m Harrison deal) will be firmly rebuffed, it underlines the Beeb's anxiety to sign up a genuine, top-of-the-bill attraction to justify their expensive return to boxing.

Their ear-benders have been pointing out that had Hatton received terrestrial television exposure, he would be as big now as, say, John H Stracey and John Conteh were in the Seventies, when the much-missed Harry Carpenter gave ringside appraisals that thankfully lacked the embarrassing hype we are enduring from his successors.

As things stand Hatton will be lucky to get a mention in the BBC Sports Personality of the Year awards and luckier still to get an invite. How different it would be if he agreed to switch channels.

Yet, despite his exploits being confined to the relatively diminutive audiences of Sky, in terms of numbers he has the biggest following of any British fighter. He is also exceedingly well paid.

Some 16,000 watched him defeat Eamonn Magee at his hometown MEN Arena three months ago and the promoter Frank Warren anticipates a five-figure attendance again at same venue on Saturday, when Hatton has another domestic dust-up, this time with the Londoner Stephen Smith.

It is his 30th fight in five years, and the seventh defence of his World Boxing Union light-welterweight title. On paper it looks a bit of a pot-boiler, a muscle-flexing exercise against an opponent who, although beaten only once in 32 fights, is surely a class below.

But 23-year-old Hatton is not taking him lightly. "I think he has more talent than Magee," he says. "Certainly a wider range of punches. Sometimes those fights where everyone expects you to win comfortably can turn out to be the toughest of all."

Hatton is any promoter's dream; bright, personable and articulate, equally gifted with gab and jab. He goes forward relentlessly, has restored the forgotten art of body-punching and sells tickets hand over fist to a fan base of thousands, most of them dyed-in-the-blue Manchester City supporters like himself. He'll be cheering for City against Liverpool on Saturday afternoon, a match that might prove considerably tougher than his own with Smith later that evening. Or the Beeb's doomed bid to snaffle him.