RICKY Hatton believes he will produce the best performance of his career when he meets Paulie Malignaggi on Saturday night.

Hatton, 30, returns to the MGM Grand Garden Arena on Saturday night to defend his Ring Magazine light-welterweight title, almost a year after suffering his first defeat in the same ring to welterweight kingpin Floyd Mayweather Jr.

A lacklustre comeback victory over Juan Lazcano in his native Manchester in May took his professional record to 44-1 (31 KOs) but saw him part company with long-time trainer Billy Graham and the Englishman turned to Mayweather's father, Floyd Sr, to mastermind a return to form.

The switch has worked wonders, according to Hatton, who said on yesterday his confidence had been fully restored by the American.

"I've had a great training camp and the twinkle in my eye is back," Hatton said. "I'm not going to change my style, I'm too long in the tooth but Floyd has polished me up in certain areas.

"Some fighters have boxing ability but don't always let it out, they don't always show it but I'm working with a trainer now that's slowed me down, made me work on different things and on Saturday night I'm going to show it.

New

"I've been working on new things and if you don't do new things in the gym you're not going to do it in the ring but that's what I've done in this camp, something I've not done for a number of years.

"I'm not just saying it, on Saturday night, as God is my judge, you're going to see a lot of improvements and the best Ricky Hatton."

Hatton added, however, that it would require a top performance to defeat Malignaggi, whose only loss in a 26-fight career came at the hands of former WBO light-welterweight champion Miguel Angel Cotto at Madison Square Garden in 2006.

"I need to be at my best because I'm fighting my nearest rival in the division," Hatton said. "And I will be at my best.

"I'm back down at my normal weight and back at the MGM Grand for the first time in a year and I hope I have better luck than I did last time.

"But I've never lost at junior welterweight and I'm not going to lose on Saturday." A year on from the hype and mind games that dominated the Mayweather showdown and resulted in an over-revved Hatton storming into battle and getting stopped in the 10th round, the Englishman was calmness personified at the final pre-fight press conference.

He left it to Mayweather Sr to get under the skin of 27-year-old Malignaggi (25-1, 5 KOs), the trainer promising in rhyme that his fighter would knock the New Yorker out.

Wrestling

Malignaggi's response was to suggest that Hatton was more comfortable wrestling his opponents than boxing them.

"I hope Floyd's right that Ricky has improved and he's moving his head and throwing combinations because that means Ricky's left his wrestling tights at home," Malignaggi said.

"So we won't need to bring a steel cage, we're actually going to be boxing. That's what I'm anticipating.

"The fight should be exciting, it's going to be like two trains colliding and I'm the big train."

Hatton, who also puts his IBO light-welterweight title on the line on Saturday night, said Mayweather Sr had restored his confidence after the defeat to his estranged son, who was trained by Floyd Sr's brother Roger Mayweather, and the less than stellar comeback win over Lozcano, which Hatton had completed after battling a chest infection.

"I needed this training camp with to give me a confidence booster after the loss and my last performance was not the standard I expected.

"Saturday night, we're going to do the business." Tweet