Former champion Ricky Hatton has issued a response to WBA welterweight champion Paulie Malignaggi, who ripped the Manchester star in an earlier article on BoxingScene.com .
Hatton will return after a three and a half year layoff on November 24th against Vyacheslav Senchenko (32-1). Hatton stopped Malignaggi in eleven rounds back in 2008 - but Malignaggi won his WBA title with a dominating TKO over Senchenko. Malignaggi is confident the end result of a Hatton rematch would be much different.
"Ricky disappeared on Twitter and then I win my world championship and I started getting calls that Ricky Hatton lost a lot of weight and is looking to fight again.
"It's not a coincidence that he decides to come back when the guy he beat wins a championship and then he picks the guy I dominated for his fight which shows you his lack of ring IQ. Let me tell you, Synchenko isn't an easy fight for him. I don't want to say he is stupid but it is stupidity on his part to think because I dominated Synchenko it is going to be an easy fight for him," Malignaggi explained.
Hatton says Malignaggi might get his wish granted.
"I hadn't even announced I was coming back. All I did was lose a few pounds and he said he'd like a rematch. Believe it or not, Paulie is one of boxing's nice guys. But be careful my old foe - you might get what you wish for champ," Hatton stated.