Ian Clarkson on what Ricky Hatton's success can do for Matthew Macklin...

Ricky Hatton is without doubt the cream of Manchester. His accent is as thick as Boddingtons's Bitter and he wears his Manchester City shorts with pride when enters the ring.

When I enter Room 702 of the Holiday Inn in Birmingham to interview him I am greeted with his minder's mobile phone ringing to the tune of Step On by Manchester's finest, the Happy Mondays.

Hatton has inspired a generation of boxers in the North-west and, along with Amir Khan, has revitalised a sport that was dying on its feet and achieved the unthinkable; he has made boxing fashionable again.

When Hatton lifted the IBF light-welterweight title against Kostya Tszyu in April this year it was in front of a sell-out 22,000 crowd all paying top dollars to watch boxing at the ungodly hour of four o'clock in the morning.

All the movers and shakers and top liggers were present, and Hatton is fast becoming as big a name as the likes of Frank Bruno, Nigel Benn and Chris Eubank.

Yet Hatton has achieved all of this without terrestrial television and, after an acrimonious parting of the ways with Frank Warren, he is likely to remain on satellite television for the remainder of his career.

However, a Hatton fight is an event in the way that Mike Tyson fights used to be.

You can shell out your payper-view subscription and crack open your cans of lager safe in the knowledge that 'the hit-man' will generally pummel his opponent into submission.

Thirty-nine straight wins ensure that Hatton is big boxoffice news and the Manchester boxing scene is thriving on the back of one man's success.

But what of Birmingham's boxing future? World champions have been thin on the ground in recent years apart from Wayne Elcock's onefight reign as WBU middleweight champion.

He won the title, wait for it, in Manchester after outpointing another Hatton wannabee in Anthony Farnell.

Elcock has the talismanic qualities to lift a city but, after being beaten by Scott Dann for the British title in September, the talented middleweight could have a long road back to the top.

There are three mercurial amateurs from various parts of Birmingham in Frankie Gavin, Don Broadhurst and Khalid Saeed but all are a long way from being world champions.

So what boxer is going to persuade us all to invest in UB40 ring tones and swarm to the NEC in our masses?

The answer is lying, unsurprisingly in Manchester, as Matthew Macklin is now based at Hatton's gym alongside legendary trainer Billy Graham.

The 23-year-old possesses an excellent amateur record and was signed up by Warren as part of his 'Fight Skool' club, which only increased his kudos.

However, a surprising loss against Andrew Facey and a series of hand injuries stalled his career.

In fact, after he parted company with Warren, some people were questioning whether he had fallen off the rails.

But Macklin has returned with a vengeance and has notched up a brace of wins in America and an Irish middleweight title in the last six months to prove that he is still very much a contender. He will be making h i s first appearance in England this year on the undercard of Hatton's WBU/WBA/IBF unification fight against Carlos Maussa in Sheffield on Saturday.

While Hatton is fully focused on strapping a third belt to his waist and proving to both Floyd Mayweather and Miguel Angel Cotto who is the dominant lightwelterweight in world boxing, he will still be keeping one eye on Macklin's result. Hatton said: "The loss against Facey was a bad one for Matthew and he would be the first to admit that.

"But I am not going over the top when I say that I can't rate Matthew highly enough since he joined our gym.

"He is doing really well. "I had seen him fight on a number of occasions before he joined our gym and I was always impressed with him.

"However, the first time I sparred with him he took me by surprise really, as I didn't know just how good he was.

"He had been a bit inactive until the last six months and that is a bit of a nightmare.

"That is the last thing you need when you are at a new gym, as you want to improve and put it into practice.

"He is getting better all the time and I think the future is very bright for Macklin.

"I think he is one of the best prospects in the country and has been for a couple of years now, so he can go a long way." While Macklin's fight is of equal importance in terms of his own career, Hatton's fight with Maussa is the more mouth-watering prospect.

His convincing victory over Tszyu catapulted him into a new stratosphere and a protracted contractual wrangle with his former manager Warren has only upped the ante ahead of this three-world title clash with Maussa.

Most pundits are tipping Hatton for a convincing win over the 34-year-old Colombian, who is defending his title for the first time.

"But Hatton is too experienced to be lulled into a false sense of security.

"Maussa is a big puncher and he wasn't fancied against Vivian Harris when he won the belt, as he was a massive underdog, but he has got a lot of knock-out wins," Hatton said.

"He is a little bit unorthodox and that can make things difficult, as you don't know where the punches are coming from at times.

"He has a big workrate, good chin and a lot of heart, but I am very confident that it is a fight I can win.

"However, a lot of people are saying it is an easy fight and I wouldn't say that at all.

"The only thing I can look at is look at the way he beat Harris and if there is another world title belt on the line then you know he is going to be up for it.

"But so am I as I have got something to prove.

"I am more focused than ever because I want to show certain people out there what they have lost," added Hatton in a thinly-veiled attack on Warren.

"It is the fight I wanted and a lot has been made about the situation with Frank Warren and it is very disappointing the way it ended.

"However, I don't want to dwell on that too much."

Hatton is more concerned about unifying the lightwelterweight division so he can be heralded as one of the greats of boxing.

He is one of the few boxers in the world who doesn't need to engage in pre-fight bluster with his opponents to sell tickets and is usually respectful.

However, do not confuse respect for anything else, as Hatton is confident that he is now the division's No 1 boxer and is convinced he will prove it against Maussa on Saturday.

"My ambition is to unify all the belts," Hatton said.

"Cotto and Mayweather are both exceptional fighters and this division is incredible.

"However, I know I am universally ranked as the No 1 after the win against Tszyu and that makes me the best in this division.

"If you can beat Tszyu then you should be full of confidence and I want a third world title belt strapped round my waist on Saturday evening."

It would take a brave man to bet against the driven Hatton fulfilling his ultimate goal and who knows if Macklin can follow in his footsteps?

A ringing endorsement from your stablemate is a prerequisite but when Hatton describes you as 'one of the brightest prospects in the country' then it is time the nation sat up and took notice.

Saturday night is his big chance to present his case and prove he can be our very own Brew XI.