Ricky Hatton sees the sights ahead of his fight in Las VegasRicky Hatton says Jose Luis Castillo's style will suit him perfectly when the pair meet in Las Vegas on 23 June for the IBO light welterweight title.
Englishman Hatton plans a repeat of the performance that brought him his finest victory to date against Kostya Tszyu two years ago.
"I think this will be a similar fight to my Kostya Tszyu fight," said Hatton. "This really is my kind of fight.
"Styles make fights and we are two people who don't take a backward step."
Hatton added: ""I expect him to train harder than he has ever trained before in his life because a win against me could lead to so many big-money match-ups for him, but if he loses his stock goes down.
"Castillo's fight against Diego Corrales was one of the fights of the century and if there was any pair-up of styles that could even beat that, you would have to say it was me and Castillo.
It will be a war. I am going to win that war
Jose Luis Castillo
"I don't want to be remembered as the greatest of all time but in years to come I want people to say, he was a good fighter.
"People have DVDs of great fights on their shelves and I want a Ricky Hatton fight to be one of those."
Hatton has won all of his 42 fights but Castillo, who has lost seven of his 55 bouts, believes the 28-year-old has faced inferior opponents.
"I don't think for one minute Ricky Hatton's record bears any comparison with mine," said the Mexican.
"He is 42-0 but things like unbeaten records can be very misleading. I am not bothered about it. It will end."
The Mexican added: "I have fought and beaten some of the best fighters in the world whereas Hatton hasn't got names like Diego Corrales, Floyd Mayweather or Joel Casamayor on his record.
606: DEBATE
I have to agree with Castillo - being unbeaten doesn't mean a great deal
BW
"He fought Tszyu when Kostya was on the way down and even then Ricky had home advantage."
Nevertheless, Castillo conceded that Hatton was a tough proposition and said he has trained harder than ever before for the IBO light welterweight title bout in Las Vegas.
"Hatton is a good, strong fighter, but I am going to knock him out," said the 33-year-old. "Hatton is there to be beaten and I know I am going to be the first boxer to do it.
"My trainer told me he has never seen me any better in the sparring I have done. That is a warning to Hatton and he should know that on 23 June it will be a war. I am going to win that war.
"Hatton will have never seen anything like me. I have the best upper cut in the division and I will use it against Hatton.
"Ricky is used to slow, cumbersome fighters, but I have real hand speed and that will cut him down."