By Victor Salazar
New York - At the moment, the world of boxing belongs to the United Kingdom. With 13 world champions, one can say this is one of the golden eras for boxing across the pond.
Nobody knows more about the UK's current success than the Manchester legend Ricky Hatton - a former world champion and now trainer of Sergey Rabchenko, who takes on Tony Harrison this Saturday on the undercard of Santa Cruz-Frampton at the Barclays Center in Brooklyn.
Coming up through the ranks from amateur to pro, the state of boxing is in good hands according to Hatton.
"We have a lot of world champions," Hatton told BoxingScene.com " I think we have a great amateur system that lead up to the pros. You got good amateurs you'll get good pros. The more good pros become world champions, the more the kids want to get in the boxing gym. We have talent and good coaches from the beginning, so they get ready as youngster."
A lot of the UK's talent will take center stage this weekend and certainly in September when IBF welterweight champion Kell Brook (36-0, 25KOs) moves up two weight divisions to fight IBO/IBF/WBA/WBC middleweight champion Gennady Golovkin (35-0, 32KOs).
Hatton is a realist. He hopes Brook wins but thinks the size is too much.
"I hope I'm wrong," said Hatton. "Brook is strong and skillful and he hits hard. He sparred my fighter Sergey and I can attest to that. He's heavy handed but you can't make up two weights and that's ultimately the difference. He's got the talent and in the end he will have his success - but don't think it will be enough [against Golovkin]."
