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Former 140-pound world champion Ricky "Hitman" Hatton has recently been the subject of comeback rumors, with a rematch with Paulie Malignaggi floated as a possible bout for the 33-year-old British star, who hasn't fought since his May 2009 knockout loss to Manny Pacquiao.
The photo you see above is of Hatton in February 2011. Since his retirement and some time getting his life sorted, Hatton has been promoting, he's recently started seriously training fighters, and in the past year or so, has seemed happy and, well, like the old Ricky Fatton, except now he doesn't have to get down to 140 pounds for fight night.
But Ricky has lost a little weight lately. And by a little, I mean quite a bit. Hatton tweeted a photo yesterday, and I was pretty well surprised when I saw it this morning: Ricky's getting back in fighting shape. Check out the photo after the jump.
Now I don't know if Ricky's getting back in fighting shape to actually fight, but jeez, with the rumors lately, how can you not read into this at least a little? I said before I don't really care to see a Hatton comeback, but you can't say he's not taking it seriously if that is the plan. This is a massive change from the Ricky Hatton we've seen for the last couple of years. If he's going to do it, it looks like he's going to do it right.
And hey, Paulie Malignaggi did say there's a big fight planned for the future after his October 20 bout with Pablo Cesar Cano.