Hatton and his camp are trying to set up a meeting with the winner of next week's Las Vegas lightweight showdown between Castillo and Diego Corrales, and TV paymasters HBO are expected to push hard for that fight to take place in October.
Hatton himself will be ringside in Vegas with his UK promoter Dennis Hobson, and will have talks with rival promoters and HBO while in the States.
But Arum, who handles Castillo and Cotto, claims that Hatton will be targeting "second-rate fighters" after winning a tight decision against Luis Collazo in Boston a fortnight ago.
Arum said: "I think Hatton has been exposed pretty much as being a relatively ordinary fighter based on his last fight. I don't think he is going to be ready to fight anybody real soon as long as he can grab HBO money to fight second-rate fighters."
Perversely, Hatton's below-par display might just work in his favour, by tempting some of the light-welter and welterweight divisions' top men into the open, believing that Collazo has exposed the Hitman.
Grab
And Hobson has laughed off the suggestion that Hatton himself will now go into hiding and seek easy pay-days, saying: "I understand Bob is just backing his own fighters, but it was a little naughty of him to imply that Ricky would be content to grab easy HBO money when that is the exact opposite of what the Hitman is all about.
"Every boxing fan knows Ricky doesn't take a backward step in the ring and he certainly doesn't take a sideward step when it comes to agreeing to fight the best possible opposition. And that most definitely includes Miguel Cotto and Jose Luis Castillo.
"Ricky has already gone on record as saying that he'd love to fight the winner of Castillo v Corrales. Ricky and I will be ringside for that fight and we think we can do business with the winner.
"Ricky v Castillo or Corrales would be the fight of the year, any year, I'd bet vital parts of my anatomy on it!"
There are said to be moves afoot to match Castillo against WBO light-welterweight king Cotto, but that is unlikely as both men are in Arum's stable.
Hobson said: "I understand that Arum would rather have two horses in the race rather than one, especially when I have the best thoroughbred in any boxing stable, but let's be realistic Castillo, or Corrales if he wins, v Ricky is a bigger fight than Castillo or Corrales v Cotto.
"With the greatest respect to Cotto, he isn't in Ricky's league in terms of international recognition. Ricky is a three-time, two- division world champion and the winner of every award going.
"But Cotto is yet to win a genuine world belt. He's still in the kiddie pool with waterwings on.
Fear
"He's at WBO title level and is struggling to keep hold of that. Arum can't possibly be serious when he says that Ricky has anything to fear from Cotto."
Hatton may have to give up the WBA welterweight belt he won by outpointing Collazo, if he is to pursue the winner of Castillo v Corrales.
The sanctioning body has ordered Hatton to face mandatory challenger and European champion Oktay Urkal in the next four months, but that fight has little appeal to a US audience. Tweet
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Bob arum's swipe @ our lad, just goes to prove "the yanks love to spout on about bigger, stronger,better,harder,tougher...."
Well just like sir henry cooper did & dany williams did.
Our ricky will let his actions prove them all wrong.
I REALY RESPECT BOB ARUMS JUDGEMENT ABOUT A FIGHTER AND I,M SURE IT WAS SAID WITHOUT MALICE OF ANY KIND ,ITS JUST HIS OPINION ,AND BEING HE,S BEEN IN THE GAME LONGER THAN MANY SO CALLED EXPERTS HAVE LIVED HIS VIEWS HAVE TO BE RESPECTED ,FOR ME LUIS COLLAZO WAS THE FIRST WORLD CLASS FIGHTER IN HIS PRIME RICKY FOUGHT ,AND ALTHOUGH HE PULLED OFF A GREAT PERFORMANCE HE FOUND COLLAZO ALL HE COULD HANDLE ,AT THE POST FIGHT PRESS CONFERENCE HE PROMISED LUIS A RETURN ,HE,S NOW MOVING DOWN A DIVISION BACK TO LT WELTER AGAIN WHETHER THATS TO AVOID A RETURN WITH LUIS IS OPEN TO SPECULATION,WHATEVER HE AND BILLY GRAHAM DECIDE ONE THING FOR SURE IS THERES NO GOING BACK TO FIGHTING HAS BEENS AND NEVER WAS IS,RICKYS IN THE BIG MONEY LEAGUE NOW WITH HBO SO HE WILL HAVE TO FIGHT TOP NOTCHERS FROM NOW ON .
I expect Jose Luis Castillo to knock out Diego Corrales in their third and final clash. Then Ricky and Castillo will hopefully collide ringwise. It'd be an incredible fight-with the definite potential for FIGHT OF THE DECADE- even surpassing Castillo V Corrales 1, and would push Ricky to the very outer edges of adversity. I know Jose Luis well and Ricky would not be able to outmuscle or outslug him like he did with Tszyu. He'd have to pick his shots and fight for his professional life. He'd also need altitude training.
Bob Arum has called Ricky ordinary to add some needle and spice plus controversy to the brew. Ricky isn't ordinary by any stretch. He just had an ordinary night by his standards, because he was up against a tricky and slick southpaw in a higher division, to which he's not naturally suited
thats the big problem with many of rickys fans , if you give your honest opinion which differs from theres ,you are judged to be slagging ricky off or spouting ,also i don,t know what cooper or williams have ever achieved when they fought real world class ,cooper got hammered by both patterson and ali ,williams got stopped by klitchko not long ago ,if rickys the best thing since chocolate biscuits why don,t he give collazo a return instead of going back on his word ,if he won,t defend his welter title he,ll be stripped of his belt for sure ,then he,ll be back to square one,for me the whole situation is a bit crazy ,but like you said "ringside" time will tell ,thats if rick fights a world class opponent instead of the usual diet of has beens and never wasis he fought before fighting collazo.
james from mexico,you can only fight as well as the other guy will let you ,just the same as any other sport .
Diego would defeat Ricky for several reasons: The fight will be in the states where refs will actually call for legitimate breaks when the fighters tie up. None of that rubbish that was allowed Hatton in his fight against Kostya Z. Diego is long and lean and will be able to hit Hatton from the outside and would not allow Ricky and his short stubby arms to get inside. Diego wins easily. Why was everyone so surprised by Hatton's first trip to the states? He was protected by European refs that allow "inside" fighters an advantage that Hatton simply will not get in the States. The taller fighter has the advantage and Ricky isn't tall.