"I respect Ricky Hatton. He's a great fighter, he's a great guy. If that fight does get made, fans all over the world will be ecstatic. They will see a fight. Ricky Hatton comes to fight. And that's what I love. If we ever do it, it will be a heck of a show, that's for sure."
Hatton told Reuters: "It would be an honor to share a ring with a modern day legend like Oscar.
"It would be great to fight him in England in a soccer stadium or America. It would be some fight. It's those sort of fights that secure your legacy."
It is not the only option available to Hatton, whose stock rose in the United States following his fourth-round knock-out of Mexican Jose Luis Castillo last month.
U.S. television executives would like to match him up later this year against any one of the following: WBA welterweight champion Miguel Cotto of Puerto Rico, former champion Shane Mosley, or WBC champion Floyd Mayweather Jr., who beat De La Hoya on a split decision in May. A Mayweather fight, in particular, excites Hatton.
"It's no secret that I also want to fight Floyd," he said.
"Hopefully in the autumn. He is regarded as the No. 1 pound-for-pound fighter in the world, but I feel I have the style to beat him. But if Floyd won't fight me maybe Oscar would. Oscar has never dodged anybody."
Mayweather said he was retiring following his victory over De La Hoya, but following Hatton's defeat of Castillo, said he wanted to "beat him all the way back to England."
A fight with either De La Hoya or Mayweather would almost certainly have to be in the welterweight division, seven pounds heavier than Hatton normally fights and seven pounds below De La Hoya's recent fighting weight.
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