Nobody who is prepared to put their health on the line for our pleasure should be denied the opportunity to make as much money out of their chosen profession as they possibly can.
That is one reason why Ricky Hatton has every right to pursue a lucrative rematch against the unbeaten and supposedly retired Floyd Mayweather despite his utterly conclusive defeat to the ‘Pretty Boy’ in Las Vegas last year.
But news that advisers on both sides are seriously contemplating such a showdown must raise proper concerns about the direction in which the sport of boxing is heading in these financially difficult times.
If the proposal comes to fruition, arguably never in boxing history will so much money have been invested in such an unjustifiable rematch.
They were attempting to rewrite history even before the last of Hatton’s disappointed supporters had exited the MGM Grand Garden Arena after seeing their man knocked out for the first time in his career.
Everything from referee Joe Cortez to the tactics of Hatton’s beleaguered former coach Billy Graham was held up as evidence of why next time would be different. Never once has been accepted by the Hatton camp that Mayweather was just too good.
Hatton has resurrected his career since he last fought Mayweather but a win over the frankly dismal Paulie Malignaggi in New York in November hardly qualifies him for another crack at the Grand Rapids man.
Not that that will bother the hype merchants, who see in Hatton enough loyal fans to ensure another big payday, and enough video editing suites to erase the one-sided nature of the first fight from memory.
They see another blockbusting build-up with the tantalising hook of Hatton’s involvement with Floyd Mayweather Snr, and a family feud which ought to be left to the living room and not played out distastefully in the glare of the boxing ring.
Nobody is denying that boxing needs big headline acts more than ever at a time when it is struggling in the United States predominantly against the continued growth in popularity of Mixed Martial Arts.
But while the sport’s new big players, predominantly Oscar De La Hoya’s Golden Boy organisation, have succeeded in wresting the sport from the control of its sanctioning bodies, they are in danger of creating a new kind of threat.
It is the threat to the fighters who the revolution has left behind: who by pure bad luck of often simple geography will only get a look in the super-fight merry-go-round from a paid-for ringside seat.
Men like Antonio Margarito, undisputably the best welterweight in the world, recent conqueror of mighty Miguel Cotto, yet as good as ignored by Oscar De La Hoya and Mayweather and a name who has probably never crossed Hatton’s lips.
Others like the unbeaten Indonesian featherweight Chris John, winner over Juan Manuel Marquez but left forgotten on the other side of the world while the Mexican takes his pick of Las Vegas blockbusters under the Golden Boy banner.
To an extent, of course, it was always so. For decades fighters have been denied rightful title shots for their dangerous styles or their perceived lack of marketability or even worse, for the colour of their skin.
But seldom has the sport seemed so cynical in exploiting the loyalty of the fans and the gullibility of the pay-per-view generation at the expense of others who will always be left knocking on the door from outside.
Hatton’s father Ray has, to his credit, signalled his preference for a fight against the awesome Manny Pacquiao, a credible prospect given their natural weights and a fight which would genuinely mean something whatever the result.
And it is to be hoped that the rematch talk is nothing more than a convenient device by one side or the other – or perhaps both – to lure Pacquiao into signing for a showdown sooner rather than later.
Otherwise we could be left with one of the most pointless rematches in boxing history. And one in which the legitimacy of the sport at the top level would take an even greater blow than even Hatton himself has a right to expect.
