By Gareth A Davies, Telegraph.co.uk
Barry McGuigan, the former world featherweight champion, said on Wednesday that Ricky Hatton's proposed comeback at world level was "potentially dangerous". And Frank Warren, Hatton's erstwhile promoter, said it was "ill-advised".
Warren masterminded Hatton's rise to prominence from a burgeoning 18-year-old talent to one of the world's major players.
Warren was beside Hatton at the MEN Arena on the fighter's greatest night, when he broke the spirit of Kostya Tszyu, then considered one of the top three pound-for-pound fighters in the world, and fought him to a standstill.
It remains Hatton's finest hour.
Warren said on Wednesday: "It [Hatton's comeback] is predictable and ill-advised. He was knocked senseless and unconscious for three minutes in his last fight. All concerned should be ashamed of themselves by letting him fight."
McGuigan added that there were "serious dangers in fighting live world-class rivals, and I would strongly advise against it", telling Telegraph Sport that the caveat in his eyes could be a 10-round bow-out fight against a light puncher.
"Hatton shouldn't be taking a fight like Juan Manuel Marquez, because you can't tell me he isn't a dangerous opponent still. My concern is that Hatton could be dismantled.
"What concerns me is the accumulation of punishment that Hatton has taken in his career, having been an attritional fighter. In most of his fights he wore his opponents down and beat them up, and took a lot of punches doing so.
"Hatton has also been world class at abusing his body outside the ring, putting on 40 per cent of body weight on top of a lean fighting body. Ricky took that to a new level, and is a poor role model in dietary terms for kids in that sense. The way he has lived may have come back to haunt him in his last few fights."
McGuigan continued: "If he fights an innocuous puncher, gets a big crowd at the Manchester City football ground and it's like a tribute night, fine. And he could even be fighting at the 10st 7lb welterweight limit [7lb more than what used to be his best fighting weight].
"Bow-out fight, I can understand, but anything more... I can’t see it being a good thing.
"Ricky might say 'Who does he think he is to judge me?', but I'm 48 years old and I've been through what he has at the very highest level and seen tragedies in the ring and guys damaged there, and sometimes fighters have to be protected from themselves."
Source: telegraph.co.uk
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