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Patience pays

Gavin Browne
13/ 1/2005

RICKY Hatton's patience finally appears to have been rewarded as his proposed fight against Kostya Tszyu is expected to be sealed next week.

The light-welterweight king announced at the weekend he will fight Hatton in a unification battle in Manchester on June 5.

A match-up with Tszyu, who is thought to be earning £2.7m to face Hatton, ends the year-long battle to match the Hitman with top light-welterweights.

Tszyu told the Sydney Morning Herald: "I will be hungry to train and hungry to fight and prove to all the Pommies I respect the guy a lot, but he is still a contender.

"I know in myself I am not going to be having any excuses for me when I start training there will be no excuses.

"The last chapter in my book has not been written and I don't know what kind of chapter it is going to be, but I am excited."

His promoter Vlad Wharton is expected in England next week to seal the deal although one or two details still need ironing out.

One is the venue - the MEN Arena is provisionally booked but Hatton's promoter Frank Warren has not ruled out an outdoor fight.

The second is the start time - American TV company Showtime want it to start at 4am British time so they can show it live during peak hours Stateside but Sky TV are apparently not keen on that idea.

Also, an emergency summit meeting of police and safety officials must be held before an early morning start is sanctioned.

Any fight would need the approval of a specially convened safety committee, including police, council officers and stewarding companies.

If the MEN Arena is the venue, the Safety Advisory Group will assess the implications of almost 20,000 people in Manchester for the event in the early hours of the morning.

This would be on top of the huge numbers of late night revellers and may involve major extra costs for the police.

There are further complications with a lack of transport at that time, both to and from the venue.