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Ricky Hatton at his second home

No matter how confident you are or how good a fighter, when you lose for the first time doubts inevitably creep in. The best thing for Ricky is to have his people around him.

Glenn McCrory on Hatton
Quotes of the week

It's great that Ricky Hatton will be back boxing in Manchester in May, at the City of Manchester Stadium, in front of his own fans.

It's great for us because we love having Ricky on Sky Sports and have followed him throughout his career, and it's great for Ricky because I know this has always been a dream of his.

More importantly, it's exactly what Ricky Hatton needs at this stage of his career.

No matter how confident you are or how good a fighter, when you lose for the first time doubts inevitably creep in. The best thing for him is to have his people, his thousands of loyal fans, behind him. Knowing how much they love him can help him get rid of those doubts.

It's only human nature to start questioning yourself, and for someone like Ricky the problem might be bigger. When you have been undefeated for so long you simply don't prepare yourself mentally to lose - and with very good reason. Ricky had looked unbeatable and he was only ever going to lose to a very good fighter, which is exactly what Floyd Mayweather is.

Boxers think they are never going to lose, and when that chink in their armour is exposed in front of the whole world it changes things dramatically. Not only do you doubt yourself, but every other Tom, Dick and Harry thinks if they catch you on the chin in the gym, you'll go down again.

Hamed lesson

You only have to cast your minds back to Naseem Hamed. Remember how invincible he thought he was? Then he was taken to school - not just beaten - by Marco Antonio Barrera. His next fight was against Manuel Calvo and, although he won, Hamed struggled badly. It was as if he just couldn't cope with the lesson Barrera handed out to him.

With that the belief in his own invincibility and punching power gone, what should have been a routine fight became a real battle. That was the last we saw of him.

Picking the right opponent is important. OK, so Juan Lazcano is a comedown from Floyd Mayweather but - let's face it - who isn't? I have no problems with the Mexican as the other man for Hatton's homecoming.

Ricky clearly doesn't have the same ego as Hamed. He knows his capabilities and he knows when he's been in hard fights. He'll know exactly how much Mayweather hurt him, whereas Hamed seemed to think the loss against Barrera was a freak of nature, a complete fluke.

I am sure Hatton will have learned from the last fight as well. He actually boxed poorly and turned in one of the worst displays of his career. He made a few mistakes; he was too square on, he was jumping in and smothering his work. Yes, he was probably trying his heart out but Ricky will know he needs to go back to the drawing board.

So, even if Lazcano is not Mayweather, it will still be a tough fight for Hatton and his camp. His parents have both talked about him retiring, he's already been in with the very best around, so the whole of Team Hatton has to make sure they get that hunger and desire back.

The support will help, as will his return to light-welterweight. He is just not big enough to box at anything else. OK, he might struggle to make the weight at 140lbs, but every other fighter in the division struggles against him.

Happy Haye

Talking of weight problems, one man who defied all the pre-fight fears about his fitness was David Haye, who by all accounts sailed through the weigh-in and past Enzo Maccarinelli. I didn't see the fight because I was away in Hamburg with my boys - we won 4-3 by the way - and stuck on a coach somewhere.

I did say, though, that David would do it and I am even more convinced now that he is the character the heavyweight division needs to liven it up - and perhaps clean it up.

I see my good friend Johnny Nelson said he wants to come out of retirement to take on Haye. If that is the case, I'm coming back too...