By Mark Vester
The BBC reports that Ricky Hatton could possibly vacate his WBA welterweight title and move back down to 140 pounds, instead of a staging a low-profile fight against mandatory Oktay Urkal in America on December 9. After watching his option of fighting Arturo Gatti go down the drain after Gatti was stopped in nine rounds by WBC champion Carlos Baldomir, Hatton is looking below for big money fights.
"We are not averse to giving up belts rather than being pushed into mandatory fights few people want to see. It is lovely and a great honour to have the belts but these days in the modern era of boxing it is big fights that the fans and the television companies want to see," said Hatton's father, Ray Hatton.
Hatton's father says that his son will still fight in America in December, but the opponent will not be finalzed for a couple of weeks.
"Ricky will be fighting in a great American city in December. We have a number of options for his next opponent which will be finalised in the next few weeks. The Gatti defeat altered our way of thinking. It was the fight everybody wanted to see but it is not going to happen now as he has been beaten," said the senior Hatton.
