I wouldn't go so far as to call it surprising: Ricky Hatton's father, Ray, has stated in The Guardian that in order to fight his son, Floyd Mayweather, Jr., will need to come down to 140 pounds.
What a total chickenshit move that is.
Ricky Hatton called Mayweather out, not the other way around. Ricky Hatton is the guy who says all the time, "I'll fight anyone, I want to fight the best," not Mayweather. Ricky Hatton is the one who stands to gain something huge from this fight as far as reputation and standing goes, not Mayweather.
And when Hatton called Floyd out, the pound-for-pound king held two titles, at junior middleweight and welterweight. He decided to keep his welterweight title. And yet Ricky Hatton demands Mayweather drop down to junior welterweight?
Mayweather hasn't fought at 140 since 2005, when he made mincemeat of Arturo Gatti. There's no apologizing for Hatton and his camp here. They're making a demand when they don't really have the footing to be making demands to begin with, and they know it's one at which Floyd will roll his eyes. Then, you know what the Hatton team will do? Cry about Floyd ducking him. This situation is the other way around, entirely.
So if this fight doesn't take place because of this ridiculous and not entirely unexpected situation that has come about, no one blame Floyd Mayweather, Jr., for being the guy that didn't take the fight. Ricky Hatton, the blue collar champion who takes on all comers, is backing his way out of this fight as best he can. If they stick to this and the fight doesn't go off, then Hatton deserves every bit of second-guessing and suspicion he gets. And it's not even like this is the first thing we've heard from Hatton's handlers that allows us to read into the situation, and come to the conclusion that they don't really want to fight Mayweather.
If the fight does go at 140, Ricky Hatton still can't beat Mayweather. I'd be a fair and unbiased kind of guy about this, but fortunately, that's not required of me. Ricky Hatton doesn't want to fight Floyd Mayweather. He only wanted to say he does, because I don't think he thought Mayweather would take him up on the offer.
It's kind of like Rafael Palmeiro. For years, people pointed out what a quiet guy Palmeiro was, and a nice guy, and all of these great things to go along with being a hell of a hitter. But as soon as the spotlight was really shone on him, nothing good came out of it. Hatton's comments drew attention, and he's as hot a name as he's ever been and likely ever will be right now. Unfortunately, the Hitman isn't smelling too rosy right now. After spending years touting himself as a guy who wants to fight the best in boxing, he gets the chance to fight the best, and he's kind of backing away from it inch by inch. He'll have only himself to blame for the fallout if it comes to that.