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Will Manny Pacquiao end Ricky Hatton's career ?
There are many who think so. The retirement of Joe Calzaghe in the last week in the UK, followed by debate and counter-debate, has focused again the spotlight on Hatton, who faces arguably the most dynamic pugilist on the planet at present in Pacquiao. He's also a politician to boot.
But it could spell the end, and one which Hatton refuses to contemplate at present. Pacquiao has the destructive style to finish a fighter. Oscar De La Hoya, for example, shouldn't fight again.
He was destroyed by Pacquiao. Yet one suspects De La Hoya's fighting ego will refuse to allow him to end a wonderful career on such a poor note. That was not the De La Hoya we know who was dismantled by Pacquiao last December.
Pacquiao is going to be a serious threat to Hatton's career, as a second serious going over in the ring could - indeed should - spell the end. But will Ricky Hatton be able to set off into the sunset as Calzaghe has done ?
It does not yet seem to be a part of his make-up. Indeed, it may be his toughest challenge. A warrior can only have so many wars, can only dig into his reserves so many times. In the end, they become depleted, no matter how good that fighter has been in the past.
Knowing when to finish is a great fighter's hardest decision. Pacquiao, too, must face that point some time soon.
Muhammad Ali was tragically wrong. So, too George Foreman, Joe Frazier, Mike Tyson, and latterly, Evander Holyfield. I have just returned from a brief discussion on the BBC World Service this morning on just how difficult it is for the great fighters to call time on their careers.
Holyfield is the most serious example of that at present, still battling, aged 46, to be once more the undisputed world heavyweight champ. He is still a great man, but his ambition is not a great advert for the sport, or indeed the current strength of the world's heavyweight division.
While retirement from work for most men is an opportunity to kick back and relax, for fighters it spells the end of a period in which they defined themselves as a human being. Certainly, that remains the case for many of the 'great' fighters.
Calzaghe, like his great hero Rocky Marciano, 49 fights unbeaten on retirement and, the only heavyweight champion never to have tasted defeat, will never know what defeat as a professional feels like. Calzaghe will always be 46-0.
Marvin Hagler walked away in his eary thirties after his last fight, in 1987. He had not lost for 11 years. He lost on a split decision to Sugar Ray Leonard. I went on a project visit to Morocco with 'Marvellous' in 2007, and although it was 20 years on, he still had not forgiven Ray Leonard "for not fighting like a man" that night, in his eyes. Ray Leonard skipped and danced for 12 rounds.
Hagler, though, had had enough. He walked away never to return. But it was the RIGHT decision. And an iron will allowed him to keep to it.
This was a great decision from one of the greats, 62 wins 2 draws 3 losses. Hagler was one of the greatest ever, and loved by fans and the sport's insiders. By stopping at the right time, he became an even greater champion.
Sugar Ray couldn't give it up though, and fought on until 1997, coming back to fight Hector Camacho after being retired 6 years! Ray Leonard is a huge admirer of Calzaghe's, and now, since the Welshman's retirement, probably even more so.
When Marciano retired, he said: "No man can say what he will do in the future, but barring poverty, the ring has seen the last of me. I am comfortably fixed, and I am not afraid of the future."
Therein lies the key. Lennox Lewis also walked away at the top, aged 38. Floyd Mayweather is 30, and he is 39-0. But he could be tempted back, one feels.
He has already been tempted back once, to face Hatton in Dec 2007. But that will have been money more than anything.
Perhaps more than in any other sport, great fighters cannot let go. Adulation and adoration. They may still need it. Can't go without it. But the bell sounds eventually on all athletic careers. At that point, when the bell is ringing, great fighters are at their most vulnerable, both as professional sportsmen, and as human beings.
What they are facing up to, in a sense, is the end of life, or a career, within their lives.
Will Hatton retire at the right time ? Will Pacquiao retire at the right time ? Will one of the careers be ended on May 2 in Las Vegas ? Will Pacquiao's intended political career fill the breach ?
It is a tough one to call, as both men have huge fan bases, and they receive adulation and adoration in a way that few people/sportsmen have ever experienced.
The decision for both men of when to hang up those gloves will probably be the toughest fight they will ever face in their lives.
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