Reasons to be cheerful - part 1

Over the next few days I will be highlighting some of the reasons why we should have every reason to be confident that Ricky Hatton can beat Floyd Mayweather on Saturday night.

1. Mayweather could be underestimating Hatton.

It is not a very well publicised fact that Americans do not think Ricky is very good. The writers in the US all love him, largely because of his personality, and they are happy to big him up because the excitement his supporters bring helps boost the sport at a time in the US when some think the sport is horribly under threat from the hullaballu surrounding cage fighting.

But the truth is that the most many Americans remember of Hatton was his wins over Kostya Tszyu and the wins over Luis Collazo, Juan Urango and Jose Luis Castillo. The last of those was quickly written off as shot by many in America, so that leaves us Collazo and Urango mainly as points of reference - they just haven't seen him at his best.

Also, bearing in mind that Mayweather says he does not watch many tapes of his opponents, there is every chance that Hatton has been widely written off as a credible opponent by the Mayweather camp.