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Boxing

Hatton to continue American adventure

24/07/2006

Ricky Hatton's next fight will be in America in December despite prospective opponent Arturo Gatti's weekend defeat to Carlos Baldomir.

The Hitman has said he would like to fight more in the United States to secure more glamorous opponents and he was expected to fight Gatti later this year in a bout which would have given Hatton a big pay-day and a shot at the WBC welterweight title.

However, the weekend's result means Hatton has to look at his options but it has been confirmed whoever the fight is against, it will be staged in the US.

"Ricky will be fighting in a great American city in December and we have a number of options for his next opponent which will be finalised in the next few weeks," Ricky's father Ray Hatton said.

"Obviously the Gatti defeat altered our way of thinking because it was the fight everybody wanted to see but it is not going to happen now because he has been beaten."

Hatton has had one fight in the States since he moved up from light-welterweight, where he unconvincingly beat Luis Collazo in May.

The Manchester fighter blamed his preparation for his lacklustre performance against Collazo and Ray Hatton said Ricky is currently taking some down-time to recover, by travelling to China to watch Manchester City's pre-season tour there.

"We felt that with Ricky having had such a hard year he needed a rest so that he could come back better than ever for some really tough fights that are on the horizon," Ray Hatton added.

"Ricky did not have enough time to prepare properly for Collazo due to matters out of our hands and he is keen to get back to basics so you can once again see the Ricky Hatton of old."

The date for Hatton's next fight has been pencilled in for December 9th.

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