There are only 10 days left before Ricky Hatton steps into the ring with Manny Pacquiao, and trepidation over the Englishman's chances mounts with every passing hour.

Hatton may have replaced a limited trainer — Billy Graham — with an excellent one — Floyd Mayweather Sr — but he hasn't altered his lifestyle between bouts and nor, more worryingly, does he appear to have learned to keep his trap shut lest he provide his opponent with the extra motivation that comes with prospect of making a braggart dine out on his own hubris.

"Manny fights the same way all the time," Hatton said about his Filipino opponent this week. "He's effective at what he does but he's not a versatile fighter. He's never met a man as fiery, ferocious or rough as me, and certainly not as big and strong. I don't think Manny is the most elusive. He's there to be hit. And if he gets hit he's going to get hit by the biggest man he's ever faced."

No doubt there was an element of the circus barker in this stream of consciousness but nevertheless Hatton surely overstepped marketing responsibilities and to potentially damaging effect. Pacquiao, as he implies, is one-dimensional all right; he's brilliant, and he is brilliant all the time.