Oscar De La Hoya has ruled out a meeting with Ricky Hatton, suggesting that the Manchester fighter would be better sticking to fighting at light welterweight.

A meeting between the most popular fighters on either side of the Atlantic would have the potential to break box office records but De La Hoya, whose Golden Boy company is now promoting Hatton's career, does not feel a fight is viable.

De La Hoya will next meet Floyd Mayweather in a rematch at light middleweight in September but though he plans to have the final fight of his career in December, he does not think a meeting with Hatton makes sense for either of them.

"I'm a naturally bigger guy in a different weight class so I would rule it out, Ricky's doing a tremendous job at 140 pounds where he feels comfortable. Where he can do a lot of great things. I would rule it out. Ricky's fighting at 140. That's where he feels most comfortable and that's where he belongs. I wouldn't advise him to go up to 147. Those few pounds make a big difference. If he feels comfortable at 140 he should stay there, which I am sure he will do. With me, I can make 147 with no problem. Can I make 140? If I try I probably can. I don't think it's going to be possible because I'm retiring this year."

Although the 1992 Olympic champion and six-weight world champion intends to have three fights in this calendar year - after his victory over Steve Forbes earlier this month - he admits the bout against Mayweather could be his last.

"My plan is to have three fights - who knows if I'll just do two because I have my fight with Floyd in September and I'm going to devote my life to that training camp mentally and physically," De La Hoya added.

"I know it's going to be draining and take a lot out of me so we'll have to see.

"I do want to do a fight in December against who I don't know, but like I've always done throughout my whole career it will be against a tough opponent, one of the best pound-for-pound fighters."

Trainer of the Year Enzo Calzaghe yesterday responded to claims from Kelly Pavlik`s trainer Jack Loew who has been quoted in the press as saying: "Maybe Enzo can teach Lockett to slap like a girl - just like Joe."

"I had to go on the internet because I’d never even heard of this person Jack Loew. And all I found was that he paves driveways. Well, once Lockett has dealt with Pavlik and Loew is out of boxing then at least he can go back to paving driveways. I’ve got no one to answer to. I’ve trained four world champions, I’ve got other champions in my gym. I won trainer of the year in America for 2007."

Enzo added: "When Pavlik is world champion for 11 years and has made 21 title defences then I will listen to Loew, but Pavlik hasn’t even held his title for a year yet. All I can say is that Joe must slap pretty hard because he’s knocked out 32 of his opponents and been an undefeated world champion for more than a decade. Ask Bernard Hopkins, Jeff Lacy and Mikkel Kessler if Joe Calzaghe slaps.

"Loew had better hope and pray that Lockett doesn’t slap like Joe because if he does it’s going to be goodnight for Kelly Pavlik. He’d better make sure that he is double prepared or even triple prepared for Gary Lockett.

"My man is in fantastic shape, real 110% stuff. He’s looked brilliant in the gym, he was a great amateur who won European competitions when he was a youngster, he’s the real deal."

Calzaghe also challenged Loew to have a massive wager on Pavlik, who is a big favourite to win the fight.

"If he’s so confident in his fighter, then why doesn’t he put his house on Pavlik winning," said Calzaghe. "Tell him to put his balls where his mouth is. What he’ll tell you is ’No way, Jose’."

Then Calzaghe turned his attention to Pavlik.

"I’ve got a lot of respect for Pavlik because he’s the champion and he beat Jermain Taylor twice," he said. "Anyone who does that has my respect. But I have not seen anything from Kelly Pavlik whatsoever that worries me. He’s a good fighter but he’s mechanical, it’s the same thing, same thing, same thing all the time. I can’t get worried about it.

"He’s never heard of Gary Lockett, never seen him fight, but Lockett knows all about Kelly Pavlik, and he is in for a surprise on June 7. His team open their mouths and talk the talk, but can they walk the walk?

"I’ve spent a lot of time in America already this year, but we’re not coming to Atlantic City for a holiday. It’s business."

lightweight contender Edner "Cherry Bomb" Cherry (24-5-2, 11 KOs) scored a vicious tenth round knockout against former two-time WBC lightweight champion Stevie "Lil' But Bad" Johnston (42-6-1, 18 KOs).

Johnson was on the canvas in rounds three, nine and ultimately in round ten, After the last knockdown Johnson lay on the canvas for several minutes but appeared to be okay.

This is an impressive scalp for Cherry who will no doubt be looking for a title fight later down the line.

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Lightweight Johnny Edwards (14-2-1, 8 KOs) scored an impressive seventh round knockout over former world champion Freddie Norwood (42-3-1, 23 KOs).

43-year-old former cruiserweight champion Arthur Williams (44-15-1, 30 KOs) took a one-sided unanimous decision over journeyman Clarence Moore (5-4-1, 5 KOs).

In an Interview with The Edmonton Journal, former heavyweight champion Vitali Klitschko spoke about the most famous bout of his career, the 2003 six-round war with Lennox Lewis. Klitschko says if the fight was not stopped on cuts, he would have knocked Lewis out. During the back and forth action, Klitschko suffered several big cuts on his face and the severity of the cuts led to the stoppage. 

"A rematch with Lennox was the fight that I had always wanted since our fight in 2003 in Los Angeles. Many people have said that our fight was the best heavyweight fight in a long time and wanted to see the rematch. Unfortunately, Lennox decided to retire instead of fighting me again. I think his decision was based on the fact that he was losing the fight on the scorecards and I really believe that I would have knocked him out if the referee would have let the fight continue," Klitschko said.

"I am looking forward to regaining the WBC heavyweight championship. As I have announced, I will participate in the election for mayor of Keiv to be held May 25. However, this will not deter me from my goal of reclaiming the WBC championship. These are my two primary goals at this time. What happens after that, only time will tell," Klitschko said. "When my ring career is over, I will support Wladimir in his effort to become the unified heavyweight champion and our boxing promotion company K2 Promotions. However, my focus will be on my political career in Ukraine."Klitschko would later give his reasons as to why the heavyweight division is currently being dominated by fighters from Europe.

"I believe the reason for this is that there is now access to better training facilities and trainers than we had under the Soviet era, when we were only allowed to compete as amateurs and professional boxing did not exist. I remember when I was coming up in the gym, we had to share training equipment with the whole team and we did not have our own equipment," Klitschko said.

In a brutal end to a decent fight Shaun George (17-2-2, 8 KOs) brutally kayoed former heavyweight champion Chris Byrd (40-5-1, 21 KOs) in round nine at the Cox Pavilion on Friday night.

Byrd hit the canvas a number of times throughout the bout, once in round one, he was again rocked in round two and hit the canvas again twice in a brutal ninth round, George seemed to find Byrd at will with his right hand and it was hard to take that a former heavyweight champion could be dominated in such a fashion.

In the ninth round Byrd just about beat the count from the first knockdown but when the fight resumed he was then battered down again and the bout was waved off by referee Jay Nady at 2:45.

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Super featheweight Ji-hoon Kim (14-5, 11 KOs) scored a spectacular first round KO over former world title challenger Koba Gogoladze (20-3, 8 KOs).

Ruslan Provodnikov (8-0, 6 KOs) impressively punished Brian Gordon (4-1, 4 KOs) for six rounds.

Joan Guzman is moving up to Lightweight it has been revealed today and is understood he will be given a number one ranking by the WBO.

When asked about Nate Campbell as a possible oppnent Guzman said "I think Nate Campbell would be a perfect opponent for me, Nobody wants to fight Nate at 135 pounds and no one wants to fight me at 130 pounds. So let's just fight each other....If Nate is truly a world champion he will accept the challenge that I have laid out for him."

To remain right on track of landing a rubber match with Manny Pacquiao, Juan Manuel Marquez will keep himself busy by taking on a risky fight at lightweight where the Mexican will likely face American Nate Campbell, top trainer Ignacio Beristain told the wire agency Notimex over the weekend.

"(Marquez) must fight at lightweight in his quest to fight Pacquiao (for the third time)," said Beristain from Mexico City. "Pacquiao doesn’t want another fight because he knows that he lost, but Juan Manuel will go up in weight to corner the Filipino should he defeat David Diaz (on June 28)."

In what could be seen as one of the upsets of the year Timothy Bradley incredible took home a split decision from the judges to take the WBC title against former champion Junior Witter.

The fight took place at the Trent FM Arena in Nottingham, England.on Saturday and everyone in attendance was given every pennies worth from their admittance fee.

As the fight started Witter got off to the better start used his quick hands to keep Bradley at a distance this was working well untill Bradley turned up the heat in round six and caught Witter flush with a great right hand that left the champion on the canvas, Witter showed a champions heart and shook off the after effects well but there was fire in Bradley's belly and he wasn't going to be denied, Bradley outworked Witter over the remaining rounds which resulted in the judges scorecards. After twelve rounds scores were 115-113 and 114-113 on two cards. Witter was ahead 115-112 on the third card.

In the Co Feature WBC #1 rated super middleweight Carl Froch (23-0, 19 KOs) battered previously unbeaten late-replacement Albert Rybacki (15-1, 8 KOs), scoring a fourth round TKO.

In a massive upset 34 year old Reynaldo Lopez (29-5-2, 20 KOs) knocked out previously undefeated IBF #2 super bantamweight Mike "Machine Gun" Oliver (21-1, 7 KOs) in round three on Wednesday night at The Roxy in Boston, Massachusetts.

The fight was going to plan throughout the first two rounds with Oliver looking comfortable and in command untill a flush left hook landed from Lopez which left Oliver falling motionless face down to the canvas. The refree Referee Dick Flaherty waved it off at 1:22.

WBO #2/WBC #4 lightweight Amir Khan (17-0, 13 KOs) will face former Bristish 130lb titlist Michael Gomez (35-8, 24 KOs) on June 21 at the NIA, Birmingham, England.

The announcment was made yesterday at a press conference and although Gomez has struggled recently he should provide a decent challenge for the british Goldenboy.

Junior Witter has revealed that he was ready to fight his nemesis Ricky Hatton in Manchester this month. Three months ago Witter and Hatton were in negotiations for a fight that British boxing has been waiting for since 2000. The fight was close to being made and Witter had agreed financial terms, but then the negotiations collapsed in acrimony.

"Ricky has been ignoring my calls for a fight for a long time - I wasn't surprised when the latest negotiations collapsed, A fight between me and Ricky would be the biggest British fight in history, but I believe he is scared of losing in front of all his fans."

Hatton fights in front of 55,000 people at the City of Manchester Stadium against Mexican-American veteran Juan Lazcano on May 24.

"There was a very real chance of me being in the ring on that night, and not Lazcano, There was agreement in principle, and I again had my hopes up, but then the goalposts were moved. I believe that Ricky is letting down his fans by ignoring me. Ricky has been banging on about how great his fans are and how much he loves them - but I know that the fight they all want to see is Ricky against me. I have heard Ricky say repeatedly that he hates my guts - or words to that effect - and if that's the way he feels I'm amazed that he is not chasing me for a fight. I'm a professional boxer and for me it's about respect and honour, and it has nothing to do with it being personal."

In the past Hatton has asked Witter to win a world title and raise his profile - and that is exactly what the boxer from Bradford has done.

Witter's WBC title defence next week will be screened live on ITV1 and it is just possible that the exposure will aid Witter's cause. "Ricky has some future plans but I am confident that his American broadcaster HBO will ask him to fight me," said Witter.

"Look at our next fights - I'm in with a young unbeaten American, and he's sharing the ring with a 33-year-old Mexican, who has not fought since February 2007.

"I'm defending the WBC belt, the world's most prestigious title, and he's got something called the IBO belt. It's a total joke and yet he still keeps telling people that I don't deserve a fight with him."

Next week Witter will take the opportunity on ITV to again challenge Hatton to a fight - but is not confident that his great rival will accept.

"I'm a fighter - but Ricky is just acting like a businessman," he added.

On paper the bout seemed to be overmatched and in the ring the same statement could actually have been used as the Goldenboy Oscar De La Hoya (38-5, 30 KOs) sailed to an easy points victory over Steve Forbes (33-5, 9 KOs).

The fight took place at the Home Depot Center Soccer Stadium in Carson, California. Which saw De La Hoya easily outpoint Forbes over twelve rounds, Oscar was simply too fast, too strong and too good for former "Contender" star. De la Hoya took the scorecards with 119-109, 119-109, 120-108.

Next up for the Goldenboy will see a greater challenge when he meets Prettyboy Floyd Mayweather in September.

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welterweight Victor Ortiz (21-1-1, 16 KOs) scored a fifth round KO against Dairo Esalas (31-12, 25 KOs).

Welterweight Sven Paris (24-3, 16 KOs) won a eight-round split decision against "The Contender's" Freddy Curiel (18-7-2, 8 KOs) the scores were 78-73, 76-75

Middleweight Daniel Jacobs (6-0, 6 KOs) needed just 53 seconds to knockout Jose Peña (2-3-1, 2 KOs).