By Mark Vester

Ricky Hatton (42-0, 30KOs), who is training hard for his Las Vegas clash with Jose Luis Castillo on June 23, is still trying to position himself for a future clash with WBC welterweight/WBC junior middleweight champ Floyd Mayweather, Jr.

In a recent interview with Sportinglife, Hatton said that his dream fight would be against Mayweather in New York's Madison Square Garden.

"To do Madison Square Garden at the top of the bill and hopefully get Mayweather because he's the best pound-for-pound fighter in the world," Hatton said. "These are big possibilities should I beat Castillo. I've achieved the majority of my goals already. Being the best in the world was one thing along with winning six world titles in two weights and topping the bill in Las Vegas. But I think if I could be the best pound-for-pound fighter on the planet in any weight division I could definitely put my slippers on and put my feet up."

After watching Mayweather performance against Oscar De La Hoya on May 5, Hatton feels more confident of beating the reigning pound-for-pound king. He saw several flaws that may help him beat Mayweather one day.

"I don't think everybody would share the same opinion but if I look at the Mayweather/De La Hoya fight, when De La Hoya put the pressure on, Mayweather shut up shop," Hatton said. "By the midway stage I thought, 'Floyd, you're going to have to pull your finger out here' but it's only when De La Hoya tired when it changed. Whether that's to do with his age, the number of hard fights or because his enthusiasm isn't there, but I think Mayweather only won it by one round in the end. So imagine someone like me who can go to start to finish, I wouldn't have let him back in the fight. So as good and talented as Mayweather is, it's not beyond me and I think I would beat him and only time will tell if I get my chance."

Most experts are impressed with Mayweather's record, but Hatton not one of them. He feels that Mayweather gets too much credit for his string of wins over fighters like Arturo Gatti, Carlos Baldomir, Diego Corrales and Zab Judah.

"Gatti was a little bit past it, Diego Corrales was a super-featherweight who looked a bit weight-drained, Carlos Baldomir was 'win some lose some', Zab Judah had seen better days and as fantastic as a result it was, even De La Hoya had seen better days than that," Hatton said.

The possibility of Mayweather in the UFC, Hatton thinks not.

"There's as much chance of Manchester City winning the European Cup as Mayweather fighting in the UFC! You can't even get him to fight in the boxing ring," Hatton said. "Floyd is safe enough in the boxing ring where he can jab and move and run and keep out the way. He's a wonderful talent but as far as mixing it up as a tough guy goes, I've had tougher dinners. I'm a big fan of the UFC but not when they start grappling and wrestling and rolling around on the floor for three minutes at a time. But when they're stood toe to toe and having a go at it I think you'd be hard pushed to find anything as exciting really. But you won't get Floyd Mayweather to stand still long enough."

Send News Tips and Comments To Mark Vester @ boxingscene@hotmail.com