Muhammad Ali visited Ricky Hatton’s new gym

Muhammad Ali visited Ricky Hatton’s new gym in Manchester, England. The appearance is part of a tour of the UK and Ireland to help promote Ali’s charitable work.

“Ricky has never met Ali before and we have all been very excited about this day for some time,” Ray Hatton, father and manager told Times Online. “It’s a great honor for him to come here.”

Ali plans to reunite with ex-opponent Sir Henry Cooper. They fought five decades ago in Wembley Arena. Ali was knocked down in the fourth round but beat the count and it was Cooper who couldn’t continue after Ali unleashed a barrage of punches in the fifth round.

“Cooper hit me so hard that my Ancestors in Africa felt it,” Ali told the media.

Rumors are that a fight between Ricky Hatton and Juan Diaz might be in the works at 140-pounds. Both Hatton and Diaz are under Golden Boy Promotions so making a deal shouldn’t be hard.

“We’ve wanted to fight Ricky Hatton for a long time. Juan wants this fight because he knows it would be a war. It would be a slugfest with two bulls meeting in the center of the ring. I don’t know about fighting Hatton in the UK though. Juan Lazcano trained in my gym for that fight with Hatton. When he hurt Ricky, the referee called time out. I don’t know about fighting him out there,” Diaz’s trainer/manger Willie Savannah told BoxingScene during an interview. “If we don’t fight Hatton, we would have no problem fighting Paulie in a rematch but our preference would be Ricky. I’ll say one thing; there won’t be a match in New York. Maybe it could happen in Las Vegas but not in New York.”

Self Note: is it me or does it sound like Team Diaz are afraid to fight at any one’s home town. Can you say P-u-s-s-y !! A true fighter will win no matter where he fights.