According to former undisputed cruiserweight champion and heavyweight title challenger David Haye, Manchester's Ricky Hatton will need to put out the best performance of his life to defeat Manny Pacquiao on May 2 at the MGM Grand in Las Vegas.

Haye does not agree with Hatton's mindset of Pacquiao "being too small" to make a dent at junior welterweight. Hatton believes that Pacquiao's win over De La Hoya was a fluke because Oscar was weight drained. He says Manny will meet the biggest fighter of his career next Saturday night.

"If Ricky can beat the best pound-forpound fighter in the world, that will be a mammoth achievement. A lot of people think Pacquiao is small, but this guy is the real deal," Haye told UK's The People.

The biggest and best performance of Hatton career came in 2005, when he stopped Kostya Tszyu after eleven rounds of action. Haye says the Tszyu performance is not good enough to beat Pacquiao. Hatton needs to be better.

"Hatton needs to fight better than he did against Tszyu to get the win. I'm told Ricky was in fantastic shape when he got to training camp and I don't think he's peaked too early. If Hatton is ever going to beat Pacquiao it is now," Haye said.