Beating Manny Pacquiao is the ultimate goal for Ricky Hatton. For the last few years, Hatton has become obsessed with beating the best pound-for-pound fighter in the world. He got his first chance in December of 2007, when he met Floyd Mayweather Jr. The fight plan backfired and Mayweather stopped the Manchester superstar in ten rounds. Hatton will get his second chance to challenge the best fighter in the world on May 2, with the MGM Grand playing host in Las Vegas.
Hatton, in his mind, believes that a win over Pacquiao will give him the title of "best fighter in the world."
“I want to take that title off him – and I know I can. Once I become the best pound-for-pound fighter, how much higher can I go? Once you have climbed Everest, where do you go next? It is the ultimate. You can’t look past someone like Manny Pacquiao. For God’s sake, he’s the best pound-for-pound fighter in the world. But if I was fortunate enough to win, which I genuinely believe I can do, I will have achieved my ultimate goal,” Hatton told The Daily Star.
“Beating him would really fulfill an ambition of mine. Ever since I started out in boxing I have dreamt of being the best pound-for-pound fighter in the world. I am now the best in my division so to be regarded as the best in the world in all divisions would be fantastic – utterly fantastic.
Of course, if he beats Pacquiao, he still wants a rematch with Mayweather Jr. Hatton still feels that a biased ref is to blame for not being able to execute his plan in the ring.
“The only thing left to do would be to have another crack at Floyd Mayweather Jr. I keep going on about how I was so hard done to by the referee, so let’s find out if it was the ref or if he was really that good. If I beat Pacquiao, it will give me more pull to say, ‘Come over here and fight me, Floyd. You won over there – now you come over here.’ I owe it to myself to try and put the record straight before I hang my gloves up. I don’t want to retire until I have another crack at him.
After a not so impressive performance against Juan Lazcano last May, Hatton began to doubt himself, but his confidence returned when he stopped Paulie Malignaggi a few months later.
"I thought my chances of becoming the pound-for-pound king had gone after my performance in the Juan Lazcano fight last year. I thought to myself, ‘Hey you, you’re not performing any more. Has it caught up with you – the going up and down in weight, a few too many pints and the hard fights and stuff like that?’ I thought maybe it had. But against Paulie Malignaggi in my last fight, I felt I redeemed myself. It wasn’t just the performance but my performance against the style of opponent which made it all the more impressive,” Hatto said.
Source: boxingscene.com
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