By Terence Dooley
Ricky Hatton believes that Amir Khan has the makings of a P4P star and has urged the British boxing public to get behind 'King' Khan ahead of next weekend's MEN Arena bill, a show which has suffered its fair share of problems and is now to be shown on Sky Sports 3 rather than Sky Sports PPV after a string of undercard fights fell through.
Hatton, though, feels that Khan's star is rising, insisting that the Bolton-born fighter has all the makings of a top boxing star. "It would be nice for people to say I was there, I bought a ticket," said Hatton when speaking about Khan's WBA light-welterweight title showdown with Paul McCloskey.
"Mayweather and Pacquiao aren't going to be there forever and when they pass the torch on, who better to take that pound-for-pound spot than Amir Khan? I had a lot of wonderful nights at the MEN Arena and Amir Khan is the new kid on the block. He's wonderful, he's a nice kid, he's just come off the Fight Of The Year and it's nice for British fans to see him come back to Britain and show them what he's learned.
"I had an army of supporters that I feel very, very proud of and I just urge boxing fans - if you are a genuine boxing fan and you were a Ricky Hatton fan for all the qualities I had - you really should come and support this young man because he's made from the same cloth. We should get behind him and be very, very proud of him."
Hatton won the linear 140lb crown, he took a legion of fans over to Las Vegas for big fight nights. The 'Hitman' is now enjoying his promotional duties, although the events of the last few weeks will have caused Hatton Promotions a headache or two as they sought to shore up the MEN bill by inking Tyson Fury versus Hasim Rahman only for Eddie Mustafa Muhammad to pull the plug on the heavyweight attraction.
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