Hatton ready to return

No venue or opponent have yet been finalised for what will be Hatton's first fight since December's painful knockout defeat to Floyd Mayweather in Las Vegas, but he is intent on repaying his loyal fans by returning home.

Hatton told Britishboxing.net: "I'm not really thinking about him (Witter). You can never say never but he's not really in our plans. I'm not saying I'll never fight him but he is not on my radar at the minute."

Ricardo Torres, Kendall Holt and Juan Lazcano are some of the leading 140lb fighters being lined up for Hatton but he insists WBC champion Witter - whose defence against Demetrius Hopkins in April is running into problems - is not on the shortlist.

"I'd love to knock him (Witter) out and think I would," he continued. "Witter is fighting well at the minute. He looks good but I'm not in the business of giving a big cheque and profile to someone who's been slagging me off for years."

For his part, Witter hopes to force a showdown with Hatton with impressive performances of the type which saw him obliterate the former WBA champion Vivian Harris in seven rounds in September.

And the fact is, Witter remains by far the biggest draw for any potential homecoming - with the hard-punching Torres providing too much risk for too little reward, and Holt coming off a sluggish win over veteran Ben Tackie last week.

But Hatton says he will continue to shut out the Bradford man and press on with his career, which he maintains is far from finished despite the major setback of his defeat to Mayweather.

Hatton added: "I've already been in the gym a couple of times but now the date is set and I'm back in. Nothing definite is signed yet but I'll get back into the swing of things slowly but surely.

"There is no point in announcing an opponent until we've got the details sorted out. I'm just excited to be fighting again and I don't have a preference about who I fight. I just want it to be signed."