Hatton, Wright Find Opponents

The search for a opponent is finally over for Ricky Hatton and Winky Wright…

Both fighters have had a tumultuous last few months: Hatton was robbed while visiting China, was forced to relinquish his WBA Welterweight Title in order to pursue other chances to find an opponent, and had to deal with Luis Collazo asking for a rematch every five minutes.

Wright on the other hand has had opponents dodge him left and right. He sent out open challenges to both Jermain Taylor and Antonio Margarito. What happened? Taylor opted to defend his belts against Kassim Ouma; Margarito and his camp completely ignored Wright, deciding to instead take on Joshua Clottey.

The two have finally found matches however:

Wright will take on the recently victorious Ike Quartey who defeated Vernon Forrest in an extremely controversial decision on August 5th.

Wright hasn’t fought in Florida in four years, so the bout against Quartey will be a homecoming of sorts. “Finally,” Winky told the St. Pete Times, “I get to come home.”

Hatton will be fighting Juan Urango in January of 2007. It was speculated for months that this fight might happen, especially with Hatton dropping his belt so he could move down in weight to try and grab Urango.

“I’ll be fighting Juan Urango on January 13,” Hatton told Sky Sports, “which is a little bit of a disappointment because I was hoping to fight in October or November, but that’s the only date HBO had available.”

The system is keeping Hatton down!

Junior Witter called out Hatton after his victory over DeMarcus Corley this past weekend but Hatton says that there are a few things that need to happen before that becomes a reality…

“I’m contracted to HBO for my next two fights,” said Hatton in response to Junior’s challenge, “and they’re practically done deals now. I don’t see why a little bit further down the line that if Junior makes a couple of defenses I can fight him.

“On the undercard will be Castillo. Should I get past Urango they’re lining up Castillo for me. If Junior can hold onto his belt and make a few defenses the fight against me will be even bigger.”

The consenus is right - It’s good that Hatton is being honest about his contract with HBO and the fact that he can’t take on whoever calls him out because of that. It’s better than lying about it to try and make yourself look better…

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