If Ricky Hatton is acquainted with the notion of being careful what you wish for, then he hid it well in the aftermath of Manny Pacquiao's unexpected demolition of Oscar De La Hoya at the MGM Grand in Las Vegas.
The Englishman watched last night's fight from the third row, where he was on commentating duty for Sky, and like everyone else in the building was deeply impressed by the Filipino's performance. He was not intimidated, however, even though he might have had good reason to be.
"My goal was to fight the winner of tonight's fight, the winner is Manny Pacquiao. He is pound-for-pound, the best boxer in the world. That's what we all want to be. I failed in my first chance against Floyd Mayweather, hopefully I will get my chance again," he said, before heading off into the Las Vegas night with the lads from Oasis. Presumably they were not in search of the nearest tea shop.
The post-fight rumblings around the MGM suggested a meeting between Hatton and last night's winner, but it is not the done deal many had thought. If De La Hoya had won, then all roads would have led to Wembley. Pacquiao's victory complicates matters, as do the murmurings that Mayweather,just one of countless Americans fallen victim to the stock market crash, is pondering a possible return to the ring and another multimillion dollar payday.
Hatton is good box-office in the States, especially after his impressive showing against Paul Malignaggi, but the suspicion is that a Pacquiao-Mayweather match-up would take precedence over anything else, always assuming the money is right for both parties.
That would be a massive setback for the Hatton camp, but they can take comfort that, sooner or later, he will get his day in the ring against Pacquiao. Whether or not he will emerge victorious from such a contest is another matter altogether.
In the run-up to the last night's fight the prevailing wisdom was that, of the two combatants, the Filipino would be Hatton's preferred choice of opponent, the argument being that De La Hoya is simply too big for the Englishman. We will never know the truth of that now, of course, but what we do know is that the Golden Boy wasn't too big for Pacquiao. Not by a long shot.
This was a stunning performance by the Filipino, unimpeachable in any way except for this: how much did it owe to his own brilliance, and how much did it owe to the demise of De La Hoya? Was the Golden Boy shot before he got in the ring, or was he just the hapless victim of a fighter who will dominate boxing for years to come? Hatton's hopes of one day being recognised as the best pound-for-pound fighter in the world will depend on the answers to such questions.
