By Robert Morales

It was Monday, 4:30 p.m. in Manchester, England. Ricky Hatton had just slept for a good hour during a train ride home following a training session. We were supposed to talk to him during the ride. But his special assistant, Paul Speaks, told us three times to call back in 20 minutes because "Ricky's asleep right next to me."

Once Hatton took the phone after disembarking, it was pointed out to him that when he steps into the ring with Manny Pacquiao on May 2 at MGM Grand in Las Vegas, it will be the second time in his career that he will be in one of those "biggest fights of your career" scenarios. The first one came in December 2007 against Floyd Mayweather Jr. That one didn't go well for Hatton, who was stopped in the 10th round of a lopsided fight.

 

That makes the second time around even more precious to Hatton's heart.

"It's everything, really, a fight that can't get any higher," said Hatton, wide awake and speaking in animated tones. "Everyone's goal as a young boy is to become a world champion, but you can't get any higher in boxing than to have the No. 1 pound-for-pound ranking. You can't get any higher than that and it's an absolutely massive fight."

Mayweather was considered by most the No. 1 pound-for-pound fighter when he stopped Hatton. Mayweather is retired, and Pacquiao is the consensus top dog now.

Reporters like Ricky Hatton. He treats us with "massive" respect, to steal one of his favorite words. His straightforwardness is refreshing. On this day Hatton answered questions about many subjects. Among other things, he spoke openly about his drinking habits. He also discussed his decision to train at home the first half of camp until traveling to Las Vegas for the last five weeks. Las Vegas is not only the site of the fight, it is the home base of Hatton's trainer, Floyd Mayweather Sr., the man Hatton believes helped him avoid early retirement.

Crossroads

Hatton, 30, brought a record of 43-0 with 31 knockouts into his fight with Mayweather Jr. Included in that record was a close victory over Luis Collazo, for which Hatton won a piece of the welterweight championship in his first fight at that weight. A career junior welterweight, Hatton today says that he is  simply not big enough for welterweight.

But, of course, there was no way he was going to pass up a chance at beating Mayweather Jr. and taking his welterweight belt. After two fights back at junior welterweight, Hatton stepped into the ring with Mayweather Jr. and was dominated, much to the dismay of the thousands upon thousands of British fanatics who had crossed the pond to root on their hero against the pound-for-pound champion.

At this point, an ailing Billy Graham was still Hatton's trainer. Again moving back down to junior welterweight, Hatton won a lopsided, yet unimpressive decision over former contender Juan Lazcano last May in Manchester. It got him thinking.

"Until my last fight with my new training camp, I was guessing not too long because I got beat by Floyd and I fought Juan Lazcano and I didn't think I did too great," said Hatton, when asked how long he will continue fighting. "Too many hard fights, I thought, maybe have caught up with me."

But Hatton eventually concluded that was not the case. He said his longtime trainer Graham was sometimes not able to do his job because of chronic pain in his hands and elbows.

"We had a lot of success and nobody can ever take that away from us, but I think Father Time caught up with my former trainer," Hatton said. "His injuries, he was having to have injections to his hands and elbows because the pain was so excruciating. It is not Billy's fault. I think my training was suffering because of that."

Hatton said that when he fought Mayweather and Lazcano, he was just "a hundred miles an hour. I was just punching away and not really thinking about what I was doing. That is why I decided to make a hard decision and move camps. For (Paul) Malignaggi), I had a very hands-on camp. If you are not doing it in training, you are not going to do it the ring."

With Mayweather Sr. in his corner for the first time, Hatton did look good against the light-hitting Malignaggi, stopping him in the 11th round in November in Las Vegas. Hatton intimated he is so confident with his new team, that he is the best he has ever been.

"With the added boxing ability I've shown with my new training camp, I'm a lot quicker and more explosive and I have more defense," Hatton said. "I think I've shown much improvement. Nobody thought I would beat Kostya Tszyu when I beat Kostya Tszyu (via 11th-round TKO in June 2005). Nobody thought I would bulldoze him that way. I believe that this Ricky Hatton is a hell of a lot better fighter than the fighter who beat Kostya Tszyu."

That's saying a lot because the win over Tszyu is the best of Hatton's career.

Hatton said he believes that this reinvigoration will help "swing it my way" when he takes on Pacquiao. He is also of the mind that he is just too big for the Filipino icon. Sure, Pacquiao moved up to welterweight and beat Oscar De La Hoya into submission after eight rounds in December. But Hatton said that when he saw Pacquiao in the flesh for the first time during the just-concluded press tour in the United Kingdom, he realized he is the bigger man.

Hatton also doesn't think Pacquiao's win over De La Hoya proved that Pacquiao can hang at the higher weights. Pacquiao started his career at 106 pounds and had never fought higher than lightweight prior to thrashing De La Hoya.

"With the greatest respect for Oscar - he's my friend and my promoter - I don't think the night Manny beat him, I don't think it was difficult to beat him," Hatton said. "Oscar was a shadow of himself. He had a problem with weight. Oscar was 147 the night of the fight and I will be 154. So I think I will be the biggest man Manny has ever faced."

If Hatton does come into the ring at 154, that will be a 24-hour weight gain of 14 pounds as he and Pacquiao are going to fight at the 140-pound junior welterweight limit.

Home Sweet Home

When this fight was signed, much was made about Hatton wanting to spend the first half of his training camp at home. This is basically the same formula that was used for Malignaggi, which worked well. Besides, Hatton said, for him it is imperative that he not spend too much time away from his family. Again, his honesty in this regard was a breath of fresh air.

"I'm a homebody and I don't like going away," Hatton said. "We are doing exactly the same for this fight as the Malignaggi fight. I've been training for two weeks. I've got four more weeks in England and I'm going to Las Vegas for the last five weeks. Any longer and I would get terribly homesick. ... For the  athlete in training, you don't just have to be strong in body, you have to be strong in mind. I think any longer than five weeks would have been detrimental to me."

Mayweather, who is in England, had wanted Hatton to spend no less than eight weeks of his camp in Las Vegas.

Pounding The Brewskis

It's well-known that Hatton loves to drink beer. A lot of it. Especially between fights. Mayweather Sr. has gone on record as saying that Hatton needs to cut that out. Well, Hatton is not likely to do that any time soon. We asked him if, in his mind, his drinking has done any damage to his career. He admitted he is cognizant of what he may be doing to himself, but he doesn't believe it has played any role in anything that has happened thus far. Not the tough time he had with Collazo, not the loss to Mayweather Jr., not the less-than-stellar performance against Lazcano.

"I don't put it down to that," Hatton said. "I've fought 46 fights. I don't fight like a Floyd Mayweather (Jr.). I have had 46 fights and that is exactly what they have been, 46 fights. Maybe I shouldn't drink as much and I should maybe look out for myself a little bit more. But I think my latest performance  was the best I've had since Kostya Tszyu."

Goossen on Arreola-McCline

Despite reports late last week that the April 11 fight between top 10 heavyweight contender Chris Arreola (26-0, 23 KOs) and Jameel McCline (39-9-3, 23 KOs) was a done deal, promoter Dan Goossen said Wednesday morning that the accord had not been 100 percent consummated, but that it would be by the end of the business day. Goossen, Arreola's promoter, said that although McCline's side was fully on board last week, there were still a few minor loose ends to tie up from his side. He did not elaborate, but he did say everything was full steam ahead.

That said, Goossen was asked about the idea that Arreola had to wait until 5 1/2 weeks before the fight to know who his opponent would be. Would that be a hindrance to a fighter who is known to have some difficulty getting himself into prime condition?

"No, and I'll tell you why," Goossen said. "I believe like every other young fighter, they have an evolution of growth and maturity in our sport. And  what's ironic is that he's been in the gym really for the past 30 days and he's just got a different mental outlook to being prepared and he understood that  we were looking for a good fight for him.

"But he also knows we had talks that slowed down our process of closing any type of fight for April 11 based upon our re-opened talks with Klitschko as it  pertained to fighting Wladimir next."

Goossen had conversations with the Klitschko camp a couple of months ago. Then Klitschko changed directions toward David Haye. When those talks broke down, Goossen said Klitschko and his advisers again reached out to him and Arreola. But Goossen said Klitschko, who holds two of the belts, wanted the fight  in Germany. Goossen said he didn't want to go there, that he wants that fight to be in the U.S. Goossen also said he believes that an Arreola-Klitschko fight could be a big pay-per-view event after Arreola has another fight or two.

"But we had to at least explore that," Goossen said. "And if we didn't explore that, this fight (with McCline) would have been done two to three weeks ago. Chris was aware of it and (trainer) Henry (Ramirez) was aware of it. And he had been training despite not having an actual name for it."

Goossen said Arreola "is ecstatic that it is Jameel McCline because it is a name he can get up for."

Listed at 6-foot-6, the 38-year-old McCline is the same height as Klitschko - or, two inches taller than Arreola, who will turn 28 Thursday.

"We want to show the boxing world what Arreola is capable of doing to a big man," Goossen said.

McCline has lost three world-title fights.

Ramirez Seconds That Emotion

We reached Ramirez by telephone Wednesday to talk not only about Arreola's fight with McCline, but the renewed negotiations with Klitschko that did not bear fruit. Ramirez was asked if he agreed with Goossen that this was not the right time to take the Klitschko fight based on Goossen's aforementioned reasoning.

For the most part, Ramirez concurred.

"A lot of people said we would be feeding Chris to the wolves if we fought Klitschko right now," Ramirez said. "We don't feel that way. But it is good to have one more fight for more seasoning."

Ramirez said he wasn't crazy about fighting Klitschko in Germany, either, but he said that if when all is said and done that is the only way Arreola will get a shot at Klitschko, "we will if we have to."

By no means is Arreola looking past McCline to Klitschko, Ramirez said.

"McCline is a dangerous guy, someone who has been in with the best in the world," Ramirez said.

Guerrero Knows The Way To San Jose

Former two-time featherweight champion Robert "The Ghost" Guerrero on Wednesday was driving from his home in Gilroy, Calif., to Oakland to work out for the media. Guerrero on Saturday will take on Daud Yordan (23-0, 17 KOs) of Indonesia in one of three fights that will be televised on HBO's "Boxing After Dark" series.

For Guerrero (23-1-1, 16 KOs), this night will be a little more special than it will be for the other five boxers involved in the three fights because the event will be held in San Jose at HP Pavilion, also known as "The Shark Tank," home of the NHL's San Jose Sharks.

Gilroy is just 10 minutes from San Jose, which means that Guerrero is more than a little keyed up about the opportunity to showcase his talents in front of his hometown fans.

"I'm real excited to be fighting out here in San Jose," said Guerrero, who is now fighting at super featherweight. "HBO is going to be out there for the first time ever. All the fans get to come to the HP to watch the fight. It's going to be loud, real loud. I just can't wait to walk out."

One thing's for sure, Guerrero said, there won't be much going on in Gilroy on Saturday because many in the small town of about 51,000 will either be in San Jose or glued to their television sets.

"Saturday night, you're going to hear the crickets chirping in Gilroy," Guerrero said.

Guerrero said that with a victory over Yordan, he is hopeful of getting a shot at any of the 130-pound title-holders this year.

Wife Casey in Remission

Guerrero has been through a lot over the past 16 months. He found out prior to his November 2007 fight with Martin Honorio that his wife, Casey, had leukemia. He then fought and defeated Jason Litzau in February 2008 before entering into a year-long arbitration hearing with his then-promoter Goossen.

Although Goossen has requested further arbitration based on a conflict of interest recently outlined by BoxingScene.com columnist Michael Swann, Guerrero won that first arbitration and is currently property of Golden Boy Promotions.

But the most important matter in Guerrero's heart has been the health of his wife. Ironically, Whereas Guerrero found out just before a fight his wife was  sick, he found out just before his most recent fight - a first-round stoppage of Edel Ruiz on Jan. 24 - that she is now in remission.

To say it is a big load off his mind is putting it mildly.

"Everything is going great," Guerrero said. "Casey is going to be at the fight and I'm looking forward to having her there. I'm excited about it."

Robert Morales covers boxing for the Los Angeles Daily News, Long Beach Press-Telegram, and BoxingScene.com