I liked this fight from the moment it was made.

It should be a great fight and another great occasion out here in Las Vegas and it is one Ricky Hatton can win.

I wasn't so sure, like a lot of people, when he took on Floyd Mayweather Jr for the pound-for-pound title, but Manny Pacquiao is a different fighter altogether. He is the the best man out there at the moment, but I don't think you can say he is the best of his generation. He's not Mayweather.

Hatton: can win, but will need the performance of his life

Size alone suggests he will be a better opponent for Ricky, who I do think has a chance. But he will have to pull out the performance of his career against a fighter at his very peak and high on confidence after wins over some of the very best around.

It is not impossible for Hatton, but it is a very, very big job.

The one thing Ricky simply has to do, whether he wins or not, is get Pacquiao on the back foot. The only real advantage I can see he has, is the size. He has a natural size and weight advantage; he has been at 140lbs for his whole career and will climb into the ring at something like 11st 2lbs come Saturday night.

Impose

He has to be more comfortable at the weight, naturally bigger, so he has to make that count. He has to impose himself, he has to apply pressure to the smaller man.

Yet he cannot be reckless. Whether or not he can do it anymore, a repeat of the Kostya Tszyu performance will not be good enough. Don't forget on that occasion he took lots and lots of punches.

But that was his special night and boxer's don't tend to get too many of those. You could have hit him with a hammer that night and he'd have walked through it!

Ricky has always been easy to hit, throughout his career. We have seen him shaken up on several occasions, some not so long ago and even before Tszyu we saw Eamonn Magee trouble him. Now I don't think Pacquiao can punch as hard as Tszyu did, but he can punch.

As Ian Darke keeps reminding me, Manny has knocked down a lot of good fighters. At lower weights perhaps, but good fighters who were by no means past their best. So Hatton cannot afford to be reckless.

Momentum

His big problem though, will be pinning Pacquiao down. Coming forward is one thing, but he cannot be naive, as he was at times against Floyd Mayweather.

Okay, Mayweather had perfect timing, but he also used Ricky's own momentum and he walked on to a lot of shots that way, which is something you just know Freddie Roach will be working on.

It's Hatton's second fight under Mayweather Snr, so he will need to use the skills they have been working on. He has to be sensible in applying pressure.

It is going to be a really tough fight and I would never write Ricky off, but I have to be totally honest and say I am leaning towards Pacquiao.

Just look at the scalps he has on his record: Oscar de la Hoya - although he was an empty shell - Marco Antonio Barrera, Erik Morales and Juan Manuel Marquez, to name a few. These are all magnificent fighters who had a decent claim to be the number one pound-for-pound themselves.

Advantage

Pacquiao is also right at his peak. Whether we can say the same for Hatton I'm not so sure. He was under huge pressure against Juan Lazcano but did struggle and you do wonder whether he is not just past his absolute best. The Paulie Malignaggi performance was more like it, but I still have my doubts.

And for all Ricky's size advantage, you do get fighters who get better as they move up in weight, like Julio Cesar Chavez and Mayweather Jr himself. I think that is what we are seeing with Pacquiao.

Whatever the condition of De La Hoya, Pacquiao and Roach had prepared for him at his very best. That means a man that had looked great against Ricardo Mayorga, decent against Stevie Forbes and don't forget, almost beat Mayweather. And Pacquiao totally and utterly out-boxed him, just as Freddie Roach said he would.

That's another thing that keeps nagging me - Roach's claims that his man wins this in three rounds. That is an amazing statement to come out with! Some trainers like Emmanuel Steward and even Floyd Mayweather Snr will say some things for effect. Freddie Roach is not like that. When Freddie says things he tends to mean them.

He told us all that Pacquiao could stop Oscar in around nine and although few of us believed him, he was prety much spot-on. And when Marco Antonio Barrera came over he said if he didn't win, then Amir Khan might as well go and look for another job - talk about putting your man under pressure!

I didn't agree with either of those, but they were right. I don't agree with his preciction that Pacquiao wins in three rounds either, but when Freddie Roach says something like that, you have to stand to attention and listen.

Accumulation

They will be working on producing the same performance that destroyed De La Hoya. Like I have said the tactics, conditioning and gameplan were set out for Oscar at his very best, and I would think we will see something along those lines against Hatton.

That means Pacquiao using his speed, working the bigger man in and out. He will look to get bite in his punches early on and make them count. Hatton has always been easy to hit too, so accumulation could also be a major factor.

Ricky's determination will be higher than it has for some years, so that will help him take those, but if Pacquiao boxes as well as he did against Oscar, it will be a big ask for Ricky.

Whatever happens, I really do think we are in for a great fight. While Pacquiao might well draw Hatton in and use his speed to stay out of trouble, don't think for a moment he is going to get on his bike all night.

We have already seen plenty of Filipinos out here in Las Vegas and the fact that there will be so many of them at the MGM Grand will not allow Pacquiao to stay on the back foot. He will come forward.

And when he does, he will do so smartly. And he will do so as a southpaw. Ricky has struggled against southpaws in the past - like most fighters - and Pacquiao is nothing like as square-on as he used to be.

Leaning

Just go back four years and he was a crude, left-hand-happy slugger but now, as we have seen, he can box beautifully. You have to give great credit to Roach for that, because the Pacquiao you will see on Saturday night is his creation.

It's not the first time we have seen a boxer re-invent himself. Barrera became a different fighter and some say got better and Hatton himself is trying the very same thing, to a degree. But with Pacquiao the job has pretty much be done.

Taking all that into consideration, I am leaning towards Pacquiao. Of course I would love to be proved wrong, but whatever my heart says, I cannot get those nagging doubts out of my head.

Ricky is big and strong enough of course, but the speed of Pacquiao and the amount of punches that will land make that a really tough ask. If he is to pull it off, I actually think it will have to be through using his skills and I do worry that even though he is now under Mayweather Snr, he has been doing what he is so used to, for so long, that he cannot change that much.

And either way, I think Pacquoiao will have no trouble finding the target all night. I am going to disagree with Freddie Roach on the three rounds, but as much as we would all love to see Ricky pull this off, I'm afraid I can see him losing this on points.

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