In five days’ time, the world will be watching when Ricky Hatton and Floyd Mayweather Jr step into the ring, but Billy Graham, Hatton’s trainer, is not feeling the pressure. As Hatton’s training winds down before Saturday night’s WBC welterweight title bout at the MGM Grand, Graham, the man in the hat in his corner, is confident that his boxer will win, although he knows that it is a confidence that is not shared by many outside the Briton’s camp.

Indeed, Graham believes that Hatton is under the least pressure since he first won a legitimate world title, against Kostya Tszyu 2½ years ago. “Nobody gave us a prayer against Tszyu and I understand why people thought that,” Graham said. “I also understand why people think we’re out of our league against Floyd. I feel under less pressure because not many people think we’re going to win.”

Graham first met Hatton when the boxer was a 17-year-old world-class amateur, who wandered into his gym to talk about turning professional. He said that the first time he saw Hatton spar, it made the hair on the back of his neck stand up.

“I predicted he would be top of the bill in Las Vegas for the undisputed title,” Graham said. “I told him that when he was 17. He stood out to me.”

They have been together for all Hatton’s 43 professional bouts and are yet to taste defeat, which Graham is not expecting to change on Saturday, whether Mayweather stands toe to toe with Hatton, as the American has said he will, or whether he gets on the back foot.

“Ricky is a master at hunting people down,” Graham said. “I don’t fear Floyd running at all. He can’t go backwards faster than Ricky can go forward. Floyd is like lightning, but Ricky is really fast, really fast.

“It is pretty hard to outpoint Ricky because of his workrate, but we will be going for an inside-the-distance win because we always do. The intention will be to dismantle him, but if it is points, it’s points. We will fight three minutes for 12 rounds from bell to bell.”

Several people have played a big role in getting Hatton to where he is, but none more so than Graham. A former professional middleweight, he found that his true calling was as a trainer. Together, Graham and Hatton have plotted a game plan for all his bouts from his gym in a converted mill in Denton, a suburb of Manches-ter. The final touches have been done for the past ten days in a gym borrowed from the Ultimate Fighting Championship under a standard office block in a characterless Las Vegas neighbourhood.

While Hatton has split from two promoters, Frank Warren and Dennis Hobson, the relationship between boxer and trainer has remained tight. This will be Hatton’s fourth consecutive bout in the United States – he has not boxed in the UK since knocking out Carlos Maussa to unify the WBA and IBF light-welterweight titles in Sheffield in 2005 and not in Manchester since beating Tszyu - but Graham believes that the decision to box abroad has helped to cement Hatton’s legacy.

“People would pay to see Ricky fight Humpty Dumpty in Britain and he could have made a lot of money,” Graham said. “We could have easily padded both our bank balances and taken a couple of fights, but we want that fight now while Floyd Mayweather is at his best and Ricky is at his best. The boxing world deserves this and so do the fans.

“I do fear the referee stepping in when Ricky works inside, but my fighters have won abroad on many occasions. We just want a fair shake and hopefully we’re going to get one.”

This is a bout that was destined to be, Graham believes. “Everybody knew what Floyd was going to do in his career,” he said. “Everybody predicted he was born to do this and his destiny was to go through the weights and be an all-time great. I’ve always thought the same thing would happen to Ricky Hatton. Maybe not go through the weights, but I always thought he would be an all-time great.”

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