Hatton's 'Freight Train' destiny

Bojado is attracting rave reviews in the US

The BBC's man in Mexico City, James Blears, checks on the progress of Francisco Bojado - a possible rival to Britain's Ricky Hatton.

Super-lightweight sensation Ricky "Hitman" Hatton's knock-out debut on US television might soon earn him a ticket to the big time.

But, while the plucky Briton impresses stateside, California-based Francisco "Freight Train" Bojado has barely broken sweat in the first year of his professional career.

The talented Mexican-American has knocked out each of his nine opponents by round two in televised bouts.

He's a very poised fighter and performs as if he's been doing this for three or four years

Carl Moretti

His promotion team at Main Events have now sat up and taken notice of Hatton as an attractive opponent.

But they have huge confidence in the credentials of their own fighter.

"You can see that the people in Britain are behind Ricky Hatton, and the people here are behind Francisco Bojado, so that alone makes it an interesting attraction," said Main Events' Carl Moretti.

"And we'll see over the next five or six fights how both of them develop. Hatton will do his thing and we'll do ours.

"If we had to fight Ricky Hatton next month, we have no problem with that.

"I don't know if Frank Warren would, but that's not to put anything against him or Ricky who is a great fighter."

Hatton was an impressive winner over Pendleton

Bojado is already the WBC's junior super-lightweight champion - a category reserved for young boxers.

This week, he was presented with a medal for outstanding achievement by the World Boxing Council in Mexico City.

Main Events president Shelly Finkel says Bojado is the best young fighter he has ever seen and is definitely a world champion of the future.

But when will he be ready to ascend that lofty throne?

Joa Hernandez - one of the key members of Bojado's management team - insists that he could fight for the championship next year.

Growing maturity

Bojado, however, is slightly more cautious.

"I'm not fully mature. I need more experience and that's what we're going to try to do," he said.

"If we feel by 2002, we still need to improve, we are not going to risk taking a championship fight."

Moretti, though, pays tribute to his boxer's growing maturity.

"He looks very young because he is very young, but when he's in the ring he fights like he's had 30 fights.

Francisco Bojado will be ready in two years but not until then

Jose Sulaiman
WBC president

"He's a very poised fighter and performs as if he's been doing this for three or four years.

"When he's ready to fight for the title, we'll fight for the title. I can't tell if it's going to be in four months, six months, a year or two years.

"At that point we'll fight whoever is there, because he's just going to get better and better."

Two-year target

But talk of Bojado being ready to fight for the title has irritated WBC president Jose Sulaiman, who has been a pioneer of safety in the ring.

"That's ridiculous - that's not having any idea of how to protect the lives, health and careers of boxers," he said.

"Francisco Bojado will be ready in two years but not until then.

"If his team want him to fight dehydrated champions, or minor league champions, perhaps.

"But if he really wants to fight for a real title, that's a different story."