Almost as famous as Ricky Hatton's exploits in the ring are stories of his excesses outside it. The Manchester boxer likes his food and has never been shy of a drink or four; part of the excitement of fight night for him is the thought of the party afterwards. But those days have to come to an end, according to Floyd Mayweather Sr, his new trainer, who has seen fit to share a few home truths with Hatton.

It comes to something when a man who was sentenced to jail for five years for drug trafficking is telling you to clean up your lifestyle, but Mayweather, who will be in Hatton's corner for the first time when he defends his IBO and Ring magazine light-welterweight titles against Paulie Malignaggi at the MGM Grand Garden Arena tomorrow, says that Hatton will never come close to reversing his only career loss - against Mayweather's son, Floyd Jr - unless he gives up drinking.

“You talk about fighting someone like my son, you are never going to beat him if you are into drinking,” Mayweather said. “You fight someone like Oscar De La Hoya - again, you'll never beat him doing stuff like that. Some things just don't go with the game. You do the wrong things and they will eventually come out. That ‘Ricky Fatton' s*** isn't going to work. If he keeps drinking and eating a lot of bad food, it is never going to happen.”

Yet Hatton, 30, seems reluctant to give up his boozy nights out, although he feels that he is in the best shape of his career after training with Mayweather.

“I don't think me cutting out the booze totally will ever happen,” Hatton said. “I'll try to meet him halfway. I am what I am and that's what makes me. It's like Roy Keane or Wayne Rooney - if you took away the fire in their belly, they would not be the same on the football pitch.

“I have done it like that my whole career and I am sick of hearing that it will catch up with my longevity - how many fights do you want me to have? I've had 46 and been a pro 12 years. When is it going to catch me up? When I have had 62 fights?”

However, Mayweather, a former welterweight contender who boxed Sugar Ray Leonard, is not one for half measures. He taught his son - who stopped Hatton in ten rounds last December - to box when he was barely old enough to walk and he was a strict disciplinarian. “The only way is not to drink at all,” Mayweather, who stopped working with De La Hoya to train Hatton, said. “Halfway is nothing. You don't get half of a title or half of being the best pound-for-pound fighter.

“If that is what he is thinking, he has got the wrong thoughts in his head. It is not that he is addicted to drinking because if he was, he would be doing it right now.

“It is maybe him showing off in front of his friends and all he is doing is hurting himself. Those guys who are drinking with him, they are not his friends anyway. If they were any sort of friends, they would say, ‘Man, this is not the right thing to do.'”

Mayweather is the latest in a long line of people to have criticised Hatton for what he eats and drinks. So far, no one has had any success. However, Hatton said that he had moderated his intake in recent times, after he started living with his girlfriend, Jennifer, who does most of his cooking.

“Now I eat well,” Hatton said. “In the old days it was a takeaway every night when I wasn't in training. I still have to get two stone off when I go into training, but the days of getting 3½ stone off are long gone.”

Mayweather also said that he would be willing to train Hatton if he had a rematch against his estranged son. Floyd Jr retired after beating Hatton but is rumoured to be back in training. “I don't train my son so if they had a rematch, I would train Ricky to try and win,” Mayweather Sr said. “I would give him the best shot he can have but if he is going to drink and eat fatty food, then you don't have a chance.

“He has got to go cold turkey. There is no other way round it. You see Roberto Duran [the four-weight former world champion], what killed him was his weight going up and down. It was enough to finish him off and all those fighters whose careers were cut short, the drinking was the problem.”

However, Mayweather, who took over from Billy Graham, Hatton's trainer for 12 years, said that he believed people will be surprised by the improvements in his man. “Before I trained him there was no defence there,” he said. “The man got hit with everything, he would take two or three punches to give one. That gets you old real quick. Right now he is slipping and sliding, moving his head. He probably got hit less in the gym than he got hit in any fights.”

Former trainer starts legal action

Ricky Hatton's former trainer, Billy Graham, has started legal action against the boxer, claiming that he owes him money. Graham trained Hatton for 12 years but was replaced by Floyd Mayweather Sr last summer.

“One of his complaints is that he is still owed money for fights going back two or three years,” Gareth Williams, Hatton's solicitor, said. “It is nonsense and very sad that Billy Graham wants to go down that route.

“When it became obvious that Billy could no longer continue as Ricky's trainer because he physically couldn't do the job, Ricky gave him several opportunities where he could be part of the team. It is well documented what Ricky has been paid and Billy has been rewarded handsomely. Ricky must have made him a millionaire and this is how he rewards him.”

Graham is in Las Vegas, staying at the MGM Grand, where the bout against Paulie Malignaggi will take place tomorrow. “It can only be interpreted that he is here to cause mischief,” Williams said.