Boxing News: Ricky Hatton Shakes Off Arm Injury Suffered In Training

Ricky Hatton has overcome an arm injury during training sessions for his January 20 Las Vegas debut and continues preparing for his HBO/SKY televised showdown with IBF Light Welterweight Champion Juan Urango.

“Ricky lost four sessions of sparring because he damaged his arm,” said father/manager Ray Hatton. “It’s not ideal but we got through it because of Ricky going into the gym so early. His fitness is bang on and we thought instead of taking any chances we’d have a week off from punching and sparring.

“He just did his second spar session yesterday and it looks like we’re on the other side of the injury now. We lost anywhere from 12 to 18 rounds of sparring but it can’t be helped. This is boxing, it’s a physical
sport and you’ve just got to get on with it.”

Despite the setback, the Hatton camp is taking things in stride. “Ricky has learned to live with this sort of thing, and it never plays on his mind, because the minute you start doing that, you start looking for every ache and pain you get,” said Ray. “We’ve had all these problems before; you don’t go through 41 fights without having bumps along the way.

“This isn’t ideal but I can look back and say that the only preparation that went absolutely perfect for Ricky was when he fought Kostya Tszyu. We’re very confident going into the Urango fight. I don’t think Urango has been in with anyone who punches as hard as Ricky and I think it will be interesting to see what happens when he gets a few back. We know that this is going to be a great TV fight and we’re
really looking forward to fighting Urango.”

Dennis Hobson/Fight Academy and Banner Promotions, in association with Top Rank, Inc., present Ricky Hatton vs. Juan Urango for the IBF Light Welterweight Championship of the world on January 20, 2007 at the Paris Hotel, Las Vegas, NV. HBO World Championship Boxing will televise live in the US starting at 10PM ET/7PM ET. SKY Box Office broadcasts live in the UK beginning at 22:00 GMT. Tickets can be purchased by logging onto www.ticketmaster.com