RICKY Hatton can see the vultures circling as he works out in the desert heat of Nevada, but his message is: "Bring them all on!"

The Manchester ace is just two days away from his biggest challenge since he wrenched the title of the world's best light-welterweight from Kostya Tszyu, when he faces Jose Luis Castillo in Las Vegas.

And he feels that every wannabe champion in the world is now lining up the Hitman in his sights, in the belief that his last two performances show that he is flagging, that he has peaked and now enjoys the good life too much between training camps.

In those fights, Hatton moved up to welterweight and took the WBA title from Luis Collazo after a late scare, and then struggled to look good against the improbably tough Juan Urango, in Vegas in January.

Now the 28-year-old from Hyde feels some fighters see him as their passport to the big time, a shot fighter on whom they can hone their skills and bolster their reputations.

Hatton, however, dismisses such talk out of hand: "People are queuing up to fight me now because I'm a big draw and they think I'm shot, judging by the last two performances.

"They see the fan base I have, the excitement I bring to my fights and they think: `I'd like a slice of that, especially if he is past his best.'

"But I am a lot better than the performances I've shown lately.

Pressure

"My trainer, Billy Graham, says I shouldn't put pressure on myself, but part of it with me always is the show. The result alone isn't good enough for me."

The sight of the circling vultures is one motivating factor among many for Hatton as he takes on a man with plenty to prove himself after a lack-lustre display himself against Herman Ngoudjo in January.

Another is to shut up the critics who claim he has been treading water - or perhaps champagne and Guinness - since he beat Tszyu on that heady, electrifying night at the Manchester Evening News Arena in June, 2005.

"Since Kostya Tszyu a lot of people have said my career has stood still and I find that a bit insulting," Hatton says. "I've moved up a weight, down a weight and unified belts.

"But what everyone should realise is that I can't fight a Kostya Tszyu every time I fight. While I haven't been fighting Tszyus, I have been fighting world champions.

"What I have achieved in the three fights since Tszyu has been impressive but not at the standard I expect from myself performance-wise."

What is niggling away at Hatton is that his Vegas debut, against Urango, was something of a flop, and if it brought him brickbats at home, that criticism was magnified in the States, who are always quick to dismiss a Limey boxer.

Slated

He was roundly slated for holding in the later stages of the Urango fight - and one US columnist has already appealed to him not to "turn this fight into a hugging contest".

But Hatton, not known for making excuses like many boxers, claimed that a cold brought on by his hotel air conditioning had weakened him and he was forced to adopt uncharacteristic spoiling tactics in order to simply hold on to the big lead he had built up with some smart boxing in the early rounds.

This time, he wants to win, and to wow Vegas at the same time.

He says: "My two fights in the States have been great events but, as far as performances go, I have not shown the Americans what I can do.

"It annoys me a little bit because in the gym I've been improving left, right and centre. I wouldn't blame people for thinking I've seen better days because of the number of fights that I've had.

"But it's all a load of rubbish. I've never been better than I have for this training camp.

"The only way I expect people to believe me is if I go out and put on a performance on Saturday and I've never been more certain of delivering.

"Strikers go through goal droughts. If I've gone through a lean spell performance-wise in my last two fights, I haven't done bad, winning world titles at two different weights.

"A big performance on Saturday squashes all that and then, maybe everybody won't be too keen to have a go."