Since Manny has decided to continue campaigning at welterweight, the IBO have stripped him of his 140 pound light welterweight title belt.

They are of course very gracious about Manny and wish him well, but they want to open up their trinket for others to wear... And it's a very un-subtle hint that Ricky Hatton may well be fighting for it in his next fight.

Ricky is listed as their number one ranked contender, so he does have that right if he chooses to pursue it.
Ricky has said that when he comes back he wants to fight for a championship belt...
That means one of these guys:
Timothy Bradley - WBO
Amir Khan - WBA
Devon Alexander - WBC
Juan Urango - IBF
Paulie Malignaggi - WBO NABO
Or an open field - IBO

Amir Kahn will probably fight Maidana, and then perhaps Malignaggi. He looks to be tied up for now.
Juan Urango and Devon Alexander will fight on March 6th. The winner will be a unified champ, but a hard one to beat for sure.
And Bradley is not currently spoken for...

Of course Ricky could probably have his pick of the litter... The interesting thing is the many new possibilities that open up for the IBO belt.

So who would you like to see Ricky fight if he goes for the IBO belt?

Some possibilities:

Junior Witter - isn't this the perfect time for this fight to finally happen? ranked #8 by the IBO
Kendall Holt - he just lost his belt to Bradley and is fighting a nobody on Feb 20th... will be available come summer
Joel Casamayor - big name, worthy opponent?
Juan Diaz - perfect pound-em-out style for Ricky and a recent champ himself; ranked number 3 by the IBO
Vivian Harris - haven't heard much from him recently but he's ranked 6 by the IBO and fights undefeated Lucas Martin Matthysse on the 30th of January
Zab Judah - big name who has been threatening at 140 for a while now; ranked 7 by IBO
Michael Katsidis - if JMM doesn't fight him next, Katsidis will automatically become the full fledged WBO lightweight champ; I'm sure he'd put on 5lb to fight Ricky
And there's also undefeated Victor Manuel Cayo (at #9)
and Julio Diaz rounding out the top 10 of the IBO rankings

http://www.iboboxing.com/rankings/140.html

Frankly, I think any of those fights are just the right level for Ricky to make his comeback at... and you?

I think I read something about Hatton getting too fat and so coming back at 147?

[Edit: apparently he has announced he will be returning as a light welterweight]



And I think Witter intends to fight at 147 now. I'm sure a Hatton fight could get him to change his mind about that if it were required, but I don't believe it has any chance of happening.

Hatton is talking about 1 or 2 more fights, depending on how things go. I think Bradley or maybe Nate Campbell would be good for his comeback. And I would be interested to see him in against Khan.

I think Manny might be able to live without his IBO crown. lol.

Marquez is the only fight I see him taking, theres no chance of him fighting the young guys in this division like Bradley, Khan, Alexander or Maidana.