Easy Crusher. "Disgrace" is a bit hyperbolic at this juncture. WBA manditory, not a fight of choice. Hatton can't catch a break with the sanctioning bodies - he's vacated 2 titles already this year because he sought bigger fights and everybody crucified him for not defending. Now he seeks to defend and people are calling him a disgrace. Tough crowd.

A good argument for a Urkal fight is that it would give him some latitude to pick his next fight (Cotto's step up to 147 or PBF). Keeping a belt at 147 is the only carrot he'd have for either of them.

If he were to be stripped he'd have no belt and then he'd be relying on Floyd or Cotto to be willing to risk their belts against Rick. Having the WBA title makes either opponent more likely - unification for Floyd, title shot at welter for Cotto. The tough part is selling this fight to HBO. Unless they're interested in having Hatton get in a fight that he can show much better in then this opponent doesn't offer much. I don't know where a Hatton / Urkal fight sells tickets other than in England - and in that case you're dealing with the whole time zone thing.

Maybe Hatton / Urkal as a co-feature on a Cotto card in September in NYC would set the stage for a big tear-up between Ricky and Miguel in early 2007. That would probably be the best business move for the network and it'll go a long way to repair the Hatton image leading into that fight.

Then the winner gets PBF at 147 in May/June of 2007.

Sounds like a winner to me. It's a tough situation he's in now. This might be the only way to make any of the other fights happen, a beltless Hatton is tough to sell to a reigning champion - especially when he wouldn't be anyone's mandatory.