The Hitman and hurt: Hatton promises a fight night to savour

The sound of a medicine ball thudding relentlessly into the flattened midriff of Ricky Hatton is an indication of what he knows he must endure in Las Vegas next Saturday. Pain. It is a ritual designed to steel his belly for the venomous, rib-cracking assault he knows will be coming from the fists of the Mexican they call "El Terrible", 33-year-old Jose Luis Castillo, an astute tactician and fearsome body-puncher who, at his best, is arguably an uppercut above the rest of those Hatton has fought.

So the heat is on for the Hit-man when he defends his International Boxing Organisation light-welterweight title. Literally so, with temperatures soaring to over 40C in the Nevada desert. Yet Hatton is determined not to catch a cold, in the ring or out.

Last time in Las Vegas, when he fought Juan Urango, he stayed in a hotel and got the sniffles from the air conditioning. Now he has rented a house just off The Strip and placed a running machine on the verandah facing the sun so he can work out in the fresh air.

"Topping the bill in Vegas is the pinnacle for any fighter," he says. "I grew up watching [Marvin] Hagler, [Thomas] Hearns and [Sugar Ray] Leonard making their names here, and now mine's up there in lights. Not bad, eh, for a little lad who began as an amateur fighting in working men's clubs on the Hattersley Estate in Manchester? It doesn't get any better."

It is something of a pugilistic paradox that while Hatton, unbeaten in 10 years as a pro, has his name illuminated in the fight game's citadel, back in Britain the encounter will be confined to a backwater, with at best only a two hundred thousand or so paying viewers watching in the early hours of Sunday morning on the satellite channel Setanta, who have snatched the TV rights from Hatton's regular paymasters, Sky. Obviously he believes in a Setanta clause.

Hatton has always been the cheeky chappie of the ring, not so much a Jack-the-lad but a natural comic with the people's touch, one of those homespun heroes who takes his washing home to mum, likes a jar, a jape and a game of darts down at his local and prefers crispy duck to caviar. There's a touch of the Flintoffs about him, and you can bet he would have been up there on the pedalo alongside Fred given half a chance.

Hatton, who has his own box at Manchester City, mixes a lot with footballers - his pal Wayne Rooney will carry his belt into the ring at the Thomas and Mack Centre - and you only wish some of his ordinariness would rub off on them. "It costs nothing to be nice to people," he says. "When you start to believe in your own hype it's the worst thing you can do. What's the point of winning world titles and being on the telly if everyone thinks you're a bit of a tosser?"

While Hatton v Castillo may not have quite the cachet of De La Hoya v May-weather a few weeks ago, it is a critical watershed for both. This will be Hatton's 43rd fight, and every time it gets harder to get back into shape for boxing's gloved gourmand. But he seems to have heeded the warnings of peers such as Leonard, Hearns and Barry McGuigan that you can't play yo-yo with your weight. Sooner or later it will rebound, like those medicine balls, and hit you where it hurts most. Muhammad Ali's man Angelo Dundee, the sagest of Svengalis, says: "It takes only one fight, one round. Suddenly the hands drop and the legs go. History is littered with fighters who go to the well once too often."

Hatton is unfazed. "I don't think I've been this excited about a fight since I fought Kostya Tszyu. I don't see how it can be a bad 'un. I'm going to go straight for him. This will be a fight they'll talk about for years to come. A proper fight, a war. I'll be on the front foot from the off. "The last two men I've met have been southpaws, not the best opponents for me to look good against. But Castillo will come for my body, and I look forward to that. I'm due a good performance. I raised myself against Tszyu when people didn't give me a prayer and I'll do the same for this one."

Two fights ago he moved up to welterweight to acquire another world title against Luiz Collazo with what was his least auspicious performance, but switched down again to regain the one he prised so brilliantly from the ageing Tszyu two years ago.

He says he is trimmer and fitter than he has ever been, and he looks it.

"The message must have got through, because the Board of Control have not been round to see how I'm doing. Usually they're saying, 'C'mon fatty, get on the scales'." So, no more "Ricky Fatton"? "Well, I suppose you could say I've had a few Guinnesses and a few pork pies less."

But in grinding himself into that shape yet again, how much has he left behind in the gym? Serious weight problems also surfaced for Castillo, a two-times world champion, in his rematch with Diego Corrales (recently killed in a motorcycle accident) in October 2005. Castillo came in three-and-a-half pounds over the 135lb limit. Stripped of his title, and fined $250,000, he went on to knock out Corrales in the fourth round of a non-title fight.