Ricky Hatton V Oscar De La Hoya...Surely Not?

A fight being spoken about as happening will see the retired Oscar De La Hoya, long seen as boxing's cash cow and all round good guy facing off against Britain's Ricky Hatton. A fight between a Golden Boy and a Hitman. A retired fighter and one that should retire. The mooted home of this fight is said to be Wembley, a venue that would hold in the region of 75,000-80,000 for a boxing contest, as both fighters get their chance to go out of the sport with a win.

Though anyone who looks at this with out dollar signs rolling over their eyes like a fruit machine, will know that this shouldn't happen any time down the line. Of course whether or not it does is a different matter altogether, it just shouldn't happen. There's no need for it to occur in fact even the "money" aspect of the fight doesn't need to be thought about, there really is no need for the two fighters to think about it. Hopefully they won't.

But lets entertain the idea, and dismiss it logically, lets be fair to those that might think it should happen for whatever sordid reason they may want it to. Oscar turns 37 in February 2010, he's been effectively a part time fighter since 2005, having had only 4 fights in that time. Victories over Ricardo Mayorga and Steve Forbes say little about Oscar, whilst the loss to Floyd Mayweather was probably Oscars final hurrah. The beat down he suffered at the hands of Manny Pacquiao though was an embarrassment, he'd never been humbled like that before, especially not by someone he so obviously wanted to stop. In fact had he not had the granite chin on him, he may have been knocked out cold a lot faster than it took him to retire himself. The Pacquiao fight saw Oscar making the Welterweight limit for the first time since 2001. So here we have an over the hill, part time fighter who was used as a boxing bag by Pacquiao. He may be a cash cow, be he was taken to the abattoir last time out.

n Ricky Hatton we have a fighter who's just turned 31 a few months back though though due to high crash course dieting is decidedly "older" in all honesty. Hatton was recently on WWE Raw and must have been walking around the 175lbs limit for a Light Heavyweight (if not weight even more). Fair enough he often becomes "Ricky Fatton" between fights, but this time it's after a long lay off, having not fought since he two was beaten by Pacquiao. Hatton was flattened back in May (of 2009) having been dropped twice previous to the knock out and seems to have ballooned to the point where it may be May again before he'll be able to fight. Which leaves us wondering what weight would it be at? Hatton at Welterweight has looked poor and Oscar can't make the weight with out being made to look like he wants to rival a sufferer of anorexia. So the fight would take place at Light Middleweight? A weight in which Hatton would look slow, sluggish and fat at, his reach would make him look like some weird stumpy style thing.

So the money aspect at pitting an all time great against a modern great (both of whom are to be honest, far from the fighters they were in their heyday) would be lucrative, most certainly. But the bigger question would be "Do either of them need any more money?" Oscar runs half of boxing it seems at the moment with the Golden Boy Promotions out fit, as well as having made hundreds of millions as a fighter. Ricky is no where near that level, though is incredibly wealthy and well off never needing to fight again in his life. Sure you can "never have too much" but with both of them clever individuals, they'll hopefully not return to the ring for "money".

So will they fight? It's a distinct possibility, though I doubt it. Even more doubt at the venue being Wembley, Oscar has never fought outside the USA, I doubt he would for a farewell especially after already bidding the boxing world good bye as an active fighter. Hatton could entice Amir Khan maybe for a summer fight in Wembley, but not Oscar. In fact after the beating Oscar got I really think he is out of the fighting aspect of boxing instead concentrating on promotional work and you can't blame him.