Ricky Hatton has turned to the estranged father of the only boxer to have beaten him in his attempt to get back to the top of the sport. Floyd Mayweather Sr will train Hatton as he challenges Paulie Malignaggi for the IBF light-welterweight title at the MGM Grand in Las Vegas on November 22.

Mayweather Sr is credited with helping his son to develop the style that turned him into a five-weight world champion, and inflicted the crushing victory over Hatton at the same venue last December.

The partnership, though, seems an odd clash of personalities and styles. At 29, Hatton is nearing the end of his career, but such a high-profile appointment shows that he has no thoughts of retirement. “At this stage of my career, I am not going to change my style too much, but you are never too old to learn,” Hatton said. “I have spoken with my team and we are all sure that I'll benefit from Floyd's incredible knowledge. The fight against Malignaggi is make or break and I'm convinced this will be the best training camp I have ever had.”

However, Billy Graham, who was sacked in July after 11 years as Hatton's trainer, criticised the move. “I think it's ludicrous,” Graham said. “I'm not saying he's not a good trainer, but it's outrageous. He's not the trainer for Ricky Hatton.”

As a boxer, Mayweather Sr was good enough to share a ring with Sugar Ray Leonard, but his career was cut short when he was shot in the leg by the brother of his son's drug-addicted mother. He first took his son to a boxing gym in his pushchair, but by the time Mayweather Jr boxed at the Atlanta Olympics in 1996, his father was in prison for drug trafficking.

Relations were always tense between father and son and Mayweather Sr was eventually sacked and replaced by Roger, his brother. Now Mayweather Sr speaks neither to Roger nor to his son, who retired instead of going through with a multimillion-dollar rematch with Oscar De La Hoya. Some believe that he quit to deny his father a big pay-day, after Mayweather Sr had agreed to train De La Hoya.

Hatton has set up his training camp at a hotel in Ashton-under-Lyne, near Manchester, where his training will be overseen by Lee Beard, his assistant trainer, until Mayweather Sr flies over in October. The final five weeks of the training camp will take place in Las Vegas.

“It's a fantastic move,” Hatton, who met Mayweather in Las Vegas last week, said. “I was very, very impressed with what he said and what he said he was going to do with me. He is regarded as the best trainer in the world.”

There has been an almost total change in Hatton's team after Kerry Kayes, his conditioner and the man credited with helping Hatton to get in shape after his infamous binges, quit last week.

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