Boxing: Hatton: 'Protect us from ourselves'

Ricky Hatton interrupted his training for the ninth defence of his World Boxing Union light-welterweight title against the veteran American Vince Phillips to be at the Glasgow ringside for Scott Harrison's clinical demolition of Wayne McCullough last weekend, explaining: "It was a fight every professional would want to see".

Harrison, the World Boxing Organisation featherweight champion, will return the compliment at Manchester's MEN Arena next weekend, for Hatton, too, is a fighter's fighter: walk in and wallop rather than hit and hop it.

But he intends to show that there is more to his repertoire than that. He has been likened to Barry McGuigan on Benzedrine, or a mini-Marciano, the way he throws his body shots and doubles up on the hook.

"It's one hell of a compliment," he declares. "Everyone says I'm a go-forward, slugging fighter, and always have been since my amateur days, but I also have a lot of natural boxing ability that I have never showed. Meeting a quality opponent like Vince will bring the best out of me."

The fight will be screened by Sky under their deal with Sports Network, doubtless much to the envy of the BBC, who would give Audley Harrison's left arm for an attraction as excitingly telegenic as Hatton to bolster their currently humdrum diet.

Hatton talks as soundly as he fights, as he demonstrated when I asked him whether he thought, as most did, that the subsequently hospitalised McCullough's brave but painfully futile challenge should have been halted on compassionate grounds by his own corner or the referee. And how might he feel himself in similar circumstances?

"Maybe the fight should have been stopped. I think after three or four rounds he was resigned to the fact that he wasn't going to win. He was in terrible trouble in the eighth, but most fighters never want to get pulled out of a fight, and they don't come any prouder than Wayne McCullough. He's a true warrior. I should imagine that had his corner have pulled him out, he would have gone absolutely mad.

"I hope never to be in that situation, but if I was I'd probably react the same. We're a funny breed, us boxers. But there are times when decisions like that should be taken out of the boxers' hands. Sometimes we need to be protected from ourselves, because there's always a life outside boxing and we should be able to enjoy it."

Hatton sees this as perhaps the toughest of his 32 fights. Phillips, from Pensacola, Florida, may be ancient (he is 39, coming up 40 in July) but he is still rather royal. His American promoter is Sugar Ray Leonard, who would not mess around with mugs. And he believes Phillips, the only man to have beaten the Australia-based Russian Kostya Tszyu, now universally regarded as supreme in the division, will be the defining test of Hatton's whirlwind career.

"It is a really intriguing fight," he says. "Vince may be in the twilight of his own career, but he still has ambitions to get back in contention among the big names. We know Ricky will blast away at the old guy, but now we shall see if this young kid has what it takes. It should be a perfect match." The 23-year-old Mancunian acknowledges this: "He's still dangerous and he's still got it. I'm in there with a class act. He's done in boxing what I've still got to do."

"Ricky's a very good fighter but I'm more concerned with getting respect for myself," says Phillips. "After all, I'm the man who beat the man. I'm a former champion myself too. I defended the title four times and only lost it on my own stupidity." That, he admits included "getting popped on marijuana, growing fat, enjoying women, partying and having fun". A lifestyle some might dream of, but Phillips claims: "I'm a new person now and this fight will either make me or break me."

They have one opponent in common, another elderly American, Freddie Pendleton. Hatton knocked him out in two rounds, whereas it took Phillips 10 to stop him. After being felled by a classic left hook from Hatton, Pendleton told him: "Son, if you can do that to me, you can do it to anyone."

In a 15-year, 52-fight career Phillips has lost seven times. His last bout, four months ago, saw him take the current world No 2, Sharmba Mit-chell, to a split points decision. If he is in shape, and if he is in the mood, he could prove a troublesome target for the Hitman.