Ricky Hatton believes Matthew Macklin could be a future world champion as he prepares to take on Finland's Amin Asikainen
Middleweight destined for the top, says promoter
Ricky Hatton believes Matthew Macklin could be a future world champion as he prepares to take on Finland's Amin Asikainen on
Friday Fight Night.
Hatton, a close friend of Macklin's and now his promoter, believes his fighter's stop-start career is heading in the right direction after vacating the British title he won in March.
The 27-year-old looked superb in stopping fellow Brummie Wayne Elcock inside three rounds to win the domestic belt and is immediately moving up in class to face Finland's Amin Asikainen for the vacant European title in Manchester.
However, Hatton firmly believes this is just another stop on the road to the top for Macklin, who is unbeaten in seven fights since moving up to middleweight.
"Matthew Macklin is a close personal friend of mine and regardless of that I think he's one of the most exciting fighters in Britain at the moment," Hatton said.
"He's already been in one of the best British title fights in recent years against another one of my friends, Jamie Moore, and he's never looked as good as he did when he won the British title in his last fight against Wayne Elcock.
"I think the manner in which he won that fight shows he's ready to move on to the European stage already.
Struggling at light-middle
"After that, I think we've got a possible world champion in the making, I really do.
"His career has been a little bit on the back-burner and that defeat against Jamie Moore didn't help, but as great a fight as it was, there were reasons for his defeat.
"He probably didn't let on how much he was struggling at the light-middleweight limit. But he's at middleweight now and he's never looked back to be honest.
"Against Elcock he looked absolutely fantastic."
However, Hatton believes Macklin will need to be at his best to get past Asikainen, whose only two defeats have come when challenging for the European title.
"He's got a very tough fight but it's a fight I think he can come through and if Matt wins this he goes straight into the top five with the world governing bodies' rankings," he said.
"It's a big, big fight for him. I think Matthew's a little bit frustrated. He's probably always dreamed of becoming a world champion and I think that dream can still come true."
"But as far as his progress has gone he has struggled for fights, he's had problems, the Moore fight was a setback and I think he's a frustrated man.
"I think his last performance brought the confidence back to him and hopefully he'll be adding the European title to that British title and I think it will be a great night for him."
