"Ricky Hatton Will Want Amir Khan's Title" Says Freddie Roach

http://bleacherreport.com/articles/214637-ricky-hatton-will-want-amir-khans-title-freddie-roach

With all due respect, one would assume that a life long boxing guru and former fighter such as Freddie Roach would know better than to look past a dangerous opponent; especially a hard punching Olympic silver medalist like Andreas Kotelnik.
However, after perusing through my usual selection of boxing news, I came across an article on the British website Sky Sports Boxing, where it seems that Roach is overlooking the job at hand, and focusing on bigger and more lucrative prize.
Roach is in England at the moment awaiting an up coming bout next Saturday night between his Wild Card Stable member and Manchester native Amir Khan and the alphabet champion Kotelnik.
This is a fight that was originally scheduled for June at London's 02 Arena but will now take place July 18 at Manchester's MEN Arena.
You would think that Roach might be a little more concerned; Khan is stepping up here—to challenge for a world title for the first time, and he is also fighting at Jr welterweight for the first time.
This fight is by no means a given, Khan has a questionable chin, and Kotelnik has big right hand power, which, in many ways, could certainly spell disaster for Roach.
Yet, Roach's thoughts, frankly, to me sounded a tad bit complacent.
"We're in a great place right now, we're ready to fight. The postponement knocked us off a little bit but we regrouped and there are no excuses, we're ready," stated Roach.
That's all well and good, but what intrigued me more however, was what he had to say regarding Ricky Hatton.


"I think if we win this title, Hatton could be knocking on our door," said Roach
"It'd be a huge fight here in the UK, you'd sell a lot of tickets, make a lot of money. Why not? I think it could be a great fight.Once Amir wins the world title he'll (Hatton) want to go after Amir's world title,"
Hatton was once the champion mainstay at the summit of the 140 pound division.
That is, until he ran head-long into a left-hook-power-punch, from boxing's No.1 pound for pound fighter—and Roach protege—Manny Pacman Pacquiao.
There's also been rumors lately regarding Roach setting up Khan with Pacquiao's leftovers; such as the semi retired Erik Morales, if you can believe that.
It seems to this writer that Roach isn't expecting the mighty Pacquaio to be around much longer and he is attempting to carefully manufacture another 140 pound champion in the form of 22 year old Khan.
When reading the quotes from Roach—if I hadn't known better—I may have thought he was discussing his personal high powered racing car, explaining in no uncertain terms to the interviewer how it would win the upcoming Grand Prix.
"We took a lot of the muscle out of the upper body and put it in his lower body, into his legs. If you have a guy with speed, it's the best asset in the world, why would you take away from that and try to build him up? There's no sense in that whatsoever. Speed kills.
"I think 140lbs is a better weight for him. He's more natural at that weight. He's much stronger at that weight and I think that's going to be the route from here on out."
Talk is cheap, action in the ring will be the true test of Khans ability's. Its important to note that even in England—Khans home turf—there are many doubters.
As for the fighter who is very popular in Britain, Ricky Hatton, he hasn't made any solid statements regarding his future.

 

and he wants khan to fight morales