As if Ricky Hatton did not have enough reasons to beat Floyd Mayweather Jr, he will be in line for a contest that could put even this weekend’s blockbuster in the shade if he pulls off an upset on Saturday night.

Hatton will be paid an estimated £10 million for facing Mayweather, but that could be eclipsed because victory would set up a superbout in May against Oscar De La Hoya, whose company, Golden Boy Promotions, is staging this weekend’s event.

Hatton’s lawyer, Gareth Williams, confirmed that talks have taken place about a contest at Wembley Stadium, although Dodger Stadium in Los Angeles, De La Hoya’s home city, could be an alternative. Certainly, after the pair’s bouts against Mayweather this year sold out in less than an hour each, it would be a contest that would be too big even for Las Vegas. “The chances are very strong,” Williams said. “We have strong links with Golden Boy and Oscar De La Hoya and we have had discussions with them about fighting Oscar in London at Wembley.

“The belief is we could get 80,000 or 90,000 people, so it wouldn’t be a 3am fight. We’d be looking to do it possibly on a Sunday evening. You’d get the money from TV and from the massive gate. And you would do it in a way in which the Americans would buy into it. They’ve got a tradition of watching sport on Sunday afternoons, such as the Super Bowl.”

A large chunk of Hatton’s income for this bout has come from his decision to take a smaller purse in exchange for British television rights. Income from pay-per-view sales on Sky alone could top £5 million.

This bout has pushed Mayweather into the upper echelons of sport’s earners. For his bout against De La Hoya in May the American received about £10.5 million, a sum that he is expecting to match this weekend. “After this fight, the only one who will be bigger than Floyd in terms of money earned in 2007 is Tiger Woods [the world's No 1 golfer],” Leonard Ellerbe, Mayweather’s manager, said.

Joe Cortez has been appointed referee for the bout. Cortez, a 62-year-old who was born in New York and who played the part of the referee in last year’s Rocky Balboa, the sixth film in the Rocky series, took charge of such high-profile bouts as De La Hoya’s win over Chávez in 1996 and the first bout between Lennox Lewis and Evander Holyfield in New York.

Fight week got into full swing yesterday in the MGM Grand, whose Garden Arena will stage the bout on Saturday night. A ring had been erected in the hotel’s lobby area, giving fans the chance to catch a glimpse and hear a few words from the boxers.

Hatton fans were in the majority, which explained the boos for Mayweather and Hatton promised his fans: “On December 8, you watch me take the belt from that clown.”

The Grand Arrival was one of two opportunities, along with Friday’s weigh-in, that fans without tickets will get to see the boxers in the flesh this week. Plenty of tickets are available on the black market, but, as with everything else in this bout, they are going for top dollar.

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