THE excitement is back for Ricky Hatton, and now he is aiming to show the Yanks the real Hitman.

The 28-year-old is in Las Vegas preparing for his IBF light-welterweight title showdown with Juan Urango a week on Saturday, the realisation of a lifelong dream for the kid from Hattersley.

But after strolling down the Strip and seeing his name up in lights, it has been down to business for Hatton and his team, working hard at Ulsterman Wayne McCullough's gym in the Nevada desert.

And with an estimated 3,000 fans travelling across the Atlantic to see the fight, and millions more watching on pay-per-view TV in the US and Britain, Hatton is determined not to let anyone down.

"This is an exciting, happening town, and we have an exciting fight to match," said Hatton, who has shrugged off an arm injury which briefly forced him to stop sparring in the build-up to the clash with unbeaten Miami-based Colombian Urango.

"A lot of my fans have been waiting for years for the chance to come here, and I won't let them down.

"My friends watched me in the early, amateur days in workingmen's clubs around Manchester, and now my name is up in lights in Vegas. It is an emotional time for me, and I am determined to put on a show."

Hatton believes that Urango's all-action, come-forward style is perfectly suited to allow him to show that he has a wide range of boxing skills, in addition to the toughness, ability to brawl and spoiling strategies which have seen him through his last three fights against Kostya Tszyu, Carlos Maussa and Luis Collazo, all three for legitimate world titles.

Write-off

But the Collazo fight, which was his first headline show in the States - in Boston in May of last year - saw him written off by some sections of the American media, as Hatton found it hard moving up to welterweight in just eight weeks, and fighting a big, slick southpaw when he had been training for the opposite.

He wants to wipe that from his memory now he is back down at ten stone and fighting for the belt he won by shocking Kostya Tszyu - and much of the boxing world - in June 2005, before relinquishing it to pursue other goals.

"I am a lot better than the Collazo performance would suggest," said Hatton. "Urango is a very good fighter with a good amateur pedigree, who comes to fight, stays in your face and is a good body puncher. He is my type of fighter, the type I would switch on the TV to watch. He goes for the KO, and doesn't take a backward step, which is something I also do.

"I feel it is a fight that the fans will walk away from feeling they have seen something special."

Hatton is still widely regarded as the top light-welterweight in the world, despite his brief move up to welterweight last year. He still holds the Ring belt, awarded by the American fight magazine of that name to the boxer they regard as the best in his division. But he says he would not be so presumptuous as to feel that he is the true IBF champion, rather than Urango, who took the belt with a points win over Naoufel Ben Rabah last summer.

"I didn't lose the belt in the ring as I vacated it, but Juan achieved a lifelong ambition when he won that title, and I wouldn't be so disrespectful as to suggest that I still see myself as the champion," said Hatton.

"I do consider myself to be one of the best pound-for-pounders in boxing, and I am really putting that mantle on the line. My main aim is to keep climbing the pound-for-pound rankings.

"I am going into the fight as challenger, which I have done in my last three fights, so it would be nice to win a title and then hold on to it."

Hatton has missed his son Campbell's sixth birthday, which was on Tuesday, and admits to an emotional phone call home: "I am disappointed to miss it, because every birthday is special when you are a kid.

"I love him to bits, but it is one of many sacrifices you have to make. It just makes me more determined to do the job, and Campbell and I will have plenty of good times when I get home.

"I am doing this for him, to give him a better life. It is hard, but things like this make success all the sweeter."

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