We arrived in Manchester on Wednesday and there is a massive buzz about the place.

Of course, a lot of that is down to the football, but it will be all about one man from now on in... Ricky Hatton.

I have never seen anybody with the popularity that he's got, not a boxer, not any single sportsman or woman and it promises to be an unforgettable night on Saturday.

Homecoming: a real event

The thing with Ricky is he good to watch, he is value for money and the people love him. Even when he was fighting at WBU level, he was still packing 14,000 or 15,000 into the MEN Arena and the fact is, back then, he was usually the overwhelming favourite.

It didn't matter who he was fighting and it still doesn't. The Ricky Hatton fan club been growing for a few years now and it will just keep on growing, following him wherever he goes, whoever he fights.

I have never been in a crowd of 55,000 at a boxing match, that's for sure. That's because no-one, with the possible exception of Julio Cesar Chavez in Mexico, could pull in that many punters. Barry McGuigan attracted big open-air crowds and Nigel Benn-Chris Eubank at Old Trafford had 42,000 in, but that was for a huge fight, a great match that everyone wanted to see.

This is all about Ricky Hatton. Not Juan Lazacno, not Paulie Malignaggi. And it wouldn't matter who he were up against, he would still sell 55,000 tickets. It's one thing doing that when you are winning and winning world titles, and it just keeps rolling along nicely, but this is on the back of a defeat. The man is just a phenomenon.

Embarrassment

I know a few people might be scoffing at Juan Lazcano as an opponent, but I believe he is a great choice. He has mixed in world class and what do people expect Ricky to do? Come back from a defeat and fight for one of the big four world titles, against a big name, straight away.

He has no need to re-establish himself as a boxer either. The guy lost to pound-for-pound the best in the world in Floyd Mayweather and there is absolutely no shame in that. It would have been an embarrassment, an insult to Ricky to put him on an undercard somewhere, at a smaller venue.

If he is not fighting world champions, he has won the right to be part of an event - and this is just what The Homecoming is, an event. Ricky Hatton has earned this. He has become a superstar.

Quite what Juan Lazcano will make of it remains to be seen, but this guy has not come to roll over. Yes, he is the underdog of course, but he is a proud fighter, he has mixed it with the very best for a long, long time and never been disgraced. And he has only been stopped once 10 years ago (against Golden Johnson).

We haven't really heard him shouting his mouth off which probably suggests that deep down, in his heart of hearts, he doesn't think he can beat Ricky. And why should he? He has failed at world title level, whereas Hatton has absolutely excelled.

Lazacano is also the perfect opponent for Ricky. He won't run, he will come to fight. And that is another thing Ricky deserves - a fighter that suits him. Look at his last few fights since Kostya Tszyu: Carlos Maussa was a nightmare; Luis Collazo was a counter-punching, southpaw, welterweight; Juan Urango was a beast of a man and another southpaw and then there was Mayweather.

The only one who really suited Ricky's style in all that was Jose Luis Castillo - and look what happened to him! That was a sensational performance and certainly a sensational finish.

Punishment

The big question mark for me as we head into this, is what are we going to see from Ricky exactly this time? Although he's not had what you would call a tough career, his body has taken a lot of punishment. Going up from 10stones to more than 12 and then back down has to take it's toll.

He will have to adapt his fighting style sooner or later, and it could well come against Lazcano. When fighters reach the latter stages of their career, they do change. We have seen it with Muhammad Ali, Sugar Ray Leonard, Marvin Hagler and more recently Ricky's pal, Marco Antonio Barrera. One fighter who thought he could keep doing it the same way was Mike Tyson - and look how that turned out.

Ricky can't keep fighting the way he did against Kostya Tszyu, it's just not logical or physically possible. Maybe this is the time to use those boxing skills he has. It is not that his technical ability gets overlooked, it's just that he never uses it. Maybe now is the time box for two minutes of a round, rather than the full three, and fight in bursts.

Lazcano will be there to be hit alright, but if he gets a good start, gets his confidence up, he can take this into the latter stages, which will be interesting. Ever since the Tszyu fight, Ricky just hasn't looked good in the second half of fights and I do wonder what he has left in the tank.

Even against Mayweather when it was hard to see him winning before the fight, it caught up with him and he was knocked out. I might not have expected him to win that one, but there was no way on earth I expected him to be KO'd.

This time I am expecting - as I am sure Ricky, his team and 55,000 Mancunians are - a stoppage, possibly around the seventh or eighth. But like I say, if Lazcano can get a rhythm going he could well take this the distance - and that will be when Ricky really shows us what he has left.

But win, lose or draw, the man deserves his moment in the spotlight.

back to top