• Steve Bunce

Hatton must seize his chance

Matthew Hatton has to bounce back from his defeat to Saul Alvarez © PA Photos

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Matthew Hatton returns to the ring on Friday and he is in a unique position at the moment in that in all of British boxing, he has had more fights that any other top-10 ranked British boxer. He has had 48 fights and is now set to face the unbeaten Belarusian Andrei Abramenka for the IBF Intercontinental welterweight belt. He needs to win here to keep the pressure on for another world title shot. If he wins it and looks good doing it then he will get another world title shot.

Matthew has been talking up the prospect of fighting Amir Khan. Do I think Matthew Hatton will beat Amir Khan? No I don't necessarily think he will, but when you look at the grand scheme of things, he probably deserves a crack at Amir Khan. Because of the Saul Alvarez fight, where he was beaten but put up a fine effort, he now has a No. 10 ranking as he went the distance with a good fighter. Provided he beats Abramenka, he will end up with some kind of world title fight. There is talk of Amir Khan and it is obviously a fight he fancies, not just for a financial point of view, but because he thinks he can win. He has a good chin and is a great pro. And what I like about Matthew, in all those years and 48 fights so far, a lot of that has come in the shadow of his brother Ricky. He has pushed on and not moaned, he has just got on with it. He has had some really tough fights and deserves a big shot. An ideal thing would be some sort of big British fight against someone like Kell Brook. Kell fights back in Sheffield in October, with his fight with Rafal Jackiewicz looking like it will be another a sell out. If Kell comes through that it would make all the sense in the world for him to fight Matthew Hatton. Matthew could fight the British champion Lee Purdy, but that is not a massive British fight in the way it would be with Kell Brook. It could be a really big fight with Amir Khan ringside promising to fight the winner. That is what we are going to see starting in September, a lot of domestic fights. It will be a lot of good domestic fights leading to even better domestic fights and it would not surprise me if Kell Brook is involved in some of those.

No Oscar party for Floyd Snr
Hardly a week goes by without Floyd Mayweather Snr saying something comical or outrageous or just plain crazy! The Mayweathers are always good for a quote, always noisy, and Floyd Snr has suggested that Oscar de la Hoya will make a comeback. Of course Floyd Snr would like to train him if he did make a comeback and of course if Oscar de la Hoya did make a comeback he would be involved in enormous fights as Oscar has been involved in some of boxing's biggest ever grossing fights during the last 15 or so years. The last time I saw Oscar de la Hoya, he was relaxing in Manchester before flying back to Los Angeles and going into rehab. Oscar has told me on several occasions that he has no intention of fighting, that he does not need to fight for the money and he does not want to fight. He has told me that every time he thinks he might make a comeback he heads for the bar! I just don't see Oscar de la Hoya making a comeback and I think it is wishful thinking from Floyd Mayweather Snr who does have a proven track record in making ridiculous predictions and that is part of his attraction.

Oscar de la Hoya has not fought since losing to Manny Pacquiao in 2008 © Getty Images

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Meanwhile, Floyd Snr's son is fighting on September 17th for the WBC welterweight title against Victor Ortiz. Floyd is making one or two comments to suggest that perhaps, just perhaps, a Manny Pacquiao fight can be resurrected. It is the fight that was discussed at length in 2008 and again in 2009 and it has been off, off, off and off since then. Floyd has just said: "I never said Manny was taking steroids. All I said was that myself and my opponent should take the test." Manny has agreed, the problem is finding the exact definition of what Floyd calls 'the test'. If Floyd gets past Ortiz and looks good getting past Ortiz, he is claiming that he will fight again before Christmas and if he were to get past Ortiz there would be more than Manny Pacquiao calling for him. Amir Khan has already started calling for him by suggesting he is scared and it is starting to sound a bit like an old record.

Time for Haye to resurface
A question I've been asked a lot lately is what is happening with David Haye whose self-imposed retirement date is three months away? The situation with David Haye is interesting in that he remains on the missing list. We know he has been in the Caribbean, been to Cuba, but he is now back. It is interesting to see if he will be ringside on August 27 when his title, I say his - it is the WBA title he lost in the ring to Wladimir Klitschko - is being fought for by Ruslan Chagaev, who was destroyed by Wladimir a couple of years ago, and Alex Povetkin. Povetkin is a Russian whose trainers have been keeping him away from the Klitschkos for a long time now as they feel he is not ready. It looks like they are simply waitng for the Klitschko brothers to grow old and retire, to tell the truth. We almost have a situation here where we have a second division title as if these guys are not good enough to survive, or in the case of Povetkin, even fight a Klitschko. If that is the case then how can they possibly fight for the WBA heavyweight title? You might as well call it the junior heavyweight title, or division two, or better still get it sponsored and we can call it something ridiculous like the Poligrip heavyweight title or Kleenex heavyweight title. It beggars belief, but no doubt it will do great TV in Germany as they love their heavyweight boxing. The Klitschkos often get 17 million viewers which is about a 70% audience share. The question is will David be tuning in and where will it lead?

Burns night
We have some fantastic news for British boxing and Ricky Burns in particular. It is looking increasingly likely that his promoter Frank Warren will do a deal for Burns to fight unbeaten American Adrien Broner. There is a suggestion that it will be on November 5th and that will suit Burns perfectly. So far he has made three defences of his WBO super featherweight title and the truth being that he desperately needs a proper fight and Broner, who will probably start as the favourite, will give him a proper fight.

Steve Bunce is co-host of ESPN's Pardon the Interruption show. Click here for more details

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