"I don't want him to fight De La Hoya next because he needs another good fight first before he goes and fights De La Hoya. He can't just go fight no De La Hoya man. I'm just telling him that. Those are my thoughts. It's not the wise thing to do. He really don't need to go fight a fight of that guy's stature right now," state world-class trainer Floyd Mayweather Sr. as he shared his thoughts on Ricky Hatton's progress and the possibility of him facing Oscar De La Hoya. Check out what else he had to say!
PC: Where do you see Ricky's progression being if you guys stay together?
FM: I think after 2 or 3 fights with me, you will see the real Ricky; the new and improved Ricky.
PC: Considering he didn't suffer any damage in the Malignaggi fight, when would you like to see him fight again?
FM: I would like to see him get in there every 3 or 4 months. That's a real reasonable time. I definitely want him to stop doing what he's doing because he's not helping himself; he's hurting himself. That's the only beef I've got with him. When he trains, he goes all out so that shows me that it's nothing but a fad. If you don't have to drink for 2 or 3 months when you're training, why in the hell will you start drinking after the fight? That don't even make sense. It really don't make sense and I don't know what to tell you man. I hope he get himself together man because he could really do something. I'm not even going to talk about if he could beat Lil Floyd because first of all, I trained Lil Floyd since he was a baby, all through the amateurs, and he's won world titles with me and I haven't been with Ricky 3 months. I'm not even going to talk about that fight. Lil Floyd is a welterweight anyway so Ricky is a different stature. If Ricky wants to fight him for money or whatever, that's cool, but a lot will have to remain to be seen what's going to come out of this in the next couple of years.
PC: Yeah, because it appears De La Hoya may want to fight Hatton next.
FM: I don't want him to fight De La Hoya next because he needs another good fight first before he goes and fights De La Hoya. He can't just go fight no De La Hoya man. I'm just telling him that. Those are my thoughts. It's not the wise thing to do. He really don't need to go fight a fight of that guy's stature right now. It's going to take him awhile to get a hold of everything I'm doing with him. He's learning slowly, but he ain't got it all yet. I don't want to just take no fight because the money is good. When I take a fight, I want to take a fight and the money too. I want to take it all. That's the way I am, but I don't know what his thing is or what his manager is thinking at this point so we'll see. I have more respect for him now that I've had the chance to deal with him and see how he is. I really think Ricky is a classy guy, down to earth and friendly. He do what he do and I'll say this about that situation is he won't last long at all in this game. He talking about meet me halfway. It ain't no meet me halfway. You meet me all of the way or don't meet me at all. At the end of the day, it's on you. It ain't on me. Like I say though Percy, at the end of the day, I plan on living a long time and you could tell them that as far as that other situation goes. I ain't said nothing about me only being here 2 years. I don't even know where they got 2 years at. 2 years don't even cross my mind when you talking about living.
[ Follow Percy Crawford on Twitter @MrLouis1ana ]