Presuming that Ricky Hatton is given a clean bill of health, there seems little chance of him deciding to retire after his crushing defeat by Floyd Mayweather Jr. But as Hatton was sent crashing to the floor in the tenth round at the MGM Grand Garden Arena, so plans for a mega-bout with Oscar De La Hoya at Wembley Stadium collapsed with him.

The breaking of a 43-bout unbeaten streak would give Hatton every reason to consider retirement, but that would not seem to be in the Briton’s plans. “I still feel like I’m at my peak, this is not the last you will see of me,” he said. “I’ve got to speak to Billy[Graham]. Billy might not have the same enthusiasm. I feel like I’ve still got a lot in me. But some of my idols never had 44 fights in their whole career and I’m never in a dull one.”

De La Hoya, whose company, Golden Boy, promoted the bout against Mayweather, is planning a return to the ring in May and Hatton had been earmarked as the opponent in a contest that could have broken boxoffice records.

But Hatton’s defeat, and its conclusive nature, leaves such a bout dead in the water, although De La Hoya, a former six-weight world champion, was keen not to rule it out. “The reason it would be viable would be because the style would make it a clash of the titans,” he said. “There are still a lot of options out there.”

That last comment seemed to be about himself rather than Hatton, but after two bouts at welterweight resulted in a defeat and a scratchy win (against Luis Collazo in May last year), it seems certain that Hatton’s future is in a lighter weight division.

Moving back down to light-welterweight, the names become less glamorous, but one sticks out: Junior Witter. It would seem to make sense. Hatton has not boxed in Britain for more than two years and an early summer bout against Witter, who holds the WBC title and has marked himself out

as the world’s best light-welterweight besides Hatton, would seem obvious. What has stopped it is Hatton’s animosity towards Witter, but that rivalry, which goes back to when Witter gatecrashed Hatton’s post-bout interview after he had won the British title seven years ago, would give the contest a huge selling point.

The three other world title-holders — Gavin Rees, Paul Malignaggi and Ricardo Torres — lack anything like the appeal in Britain and Golden Boy, which the Hattons have been very impressed with this week, has expansion plans into Europe. Hatton does still hold the IBO light-welterweight title that, although marginal, does give him room to pick an opponent. If he wants his next bout to be in the United States, the most lucrative match open to him would be against Juan Diaz, the unbeaten WBA, WBO and IBF lightweight champion from Texas, known as the “Baby Bull”.

But before any dates or opponents are considered, problems in the Hatton camp need to be addressed. There have often been rumours of discord in Team Hatton, but this week it had come close to open warfare. With passions running high, the problems came to a head.

It is usual when a boxer loses his unbeaten record that the trainer is jettisoned, but Hatton and Graham are close, despite it appearing that Saturday was a night that Hatton got his tactics all wrong. “I’m not going to go, ‘Ricky should have done this, Ricky should have done that’, Ricky done me proud tonight,” Graham said. “He should only carry on if he really wants to. If he does, I will be with him as long as he wants me. But I’d be happy either way. I’m not telling him to quit, it’s entirely his decision.”

Emanuel Steward, the former trainer of Lennox Lewis and Thomas Hearns, who was working the bout for HBO, the host American broadcaster, believes that the corner could have done more to calm down Hatton. “I’ve seen that happen to a boxer before. They get too excited and over-anxious and that moves on down the line to their performance,” he said. “Ricky Hatton is a very brave fighter who went in there and got careless. Why did he get careless? I think he was too wired up. He wanted to fight for the crowd and a crowd can work against you just as they can work for you. This crowd worked against him.

“A boxer has to have controlled aggression and I didn’t see enough of that from Hatton’s corner. I saw naked, crude aggression.”

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