Barry McGuigan has claimed that Ricky Hatton can find his best form inside the ring when he returns to professional boxing.

Former world champion Hatton is expected to announce his return to the sport on Friday and McGuigan has backed the British fighter to impress after a three-year absence.

"He won't come back in a half-hearted fashion, he will give it everything. If that's not good enough, so be it," McGuigan told BBC Sport. "If he decides to come back, I'm 100% behind the guy. I'd rather he did it now than waited five years and then decided to come back.

"Ricky is a lovely, lovely man and he's been great for British boxing so it would be devastating for him and British boxing if he came back and was a pale comparison of his former years.

"But I don't think that's going to happen. I don't think he'd come back if he didn't think he could be almost as good as he used to be."

Oscar De La Hoya has hinted that Amir Khan could fight Hatton in the near future.