British boxing icon Ricky Hatton is not too thrilled with Floyd Mayweather's decision to pick Marcos Maidana for his next fight scheduled on May 3rd at the MGM Grand in Las Vegas.
In an interview with the Manchester Evening News, Hatton said that a showdown between his compatriot Amir Khan and Mayweather would have given fight fans one hell of an exciting fight, but the reigning pound-for-pound king robbed fans of that opportunity.
Khan was considered as Mayweather's most likely opponent over the past several weeks. The British boxer even backed out of a title fight against Devon Alexander in December, but all his sacrifices were wasted after Mayweather decided to face Maidana.
Hatton said that Mayweather wanted an easier opponent, saying that Maidana is not capable of putting the 37-year-old champion into trouble,
According to Hatton, the upcoming Mayweather-Maidana showdown will just be like Mayweather's bout against Saul Alvarez in November wherein the Grand Rapids native dominated that then-unbeaten Alvarez.
"I like Maidana. He is a big puncher and he's all action, but I don't see that he has any of the qualities that could trouble Floyd," Hatton said. "Style-wise it's a mismatch. He's just a smaller Alvarez with less boxing ability. I don't see how he's going to harm Floyd unless he lands one on the chin - and we all know how hard he is to hit."
Hatton remained firm on his previous statement, saying that Khan is the perfect opponent to Mayweather. The former champion insisted that Khan's speed and fighting style could give Floyd a lot of problems.
Hatton insisted that defeating Mayweather will be a gargantuan task for Khan, but he reiterated that Mayweather will not have an easy night had he picked the Bolton native as his next opponent.
"Amir might be the only fighter out there who is as fast as him and even if Floyd did win, he might not come out of it looking very good," Hatton said. "Instead, he has chosen Maidana as his next opponent, but for me it's just a repeat of the Saul Alvarez fight. Floyd won that comfortably despite giving away a weight advantage."
