Ricky Hatton wont be fighting anytime soon

Ricky Hatton

Ricky Hatton has revealed he is unlikely to step back in the ring again anytime soon if ever at all.

Hatton 31, has not fought since losing to Manny Pacquiao in May 2009. and has no intentions of making a ring return anytime soon.

Speaking in an interview on BBC Radio Manchester Hatton said, “You can never say never, but if I was to put my last pound on it I would say ‘no, I think that’s me done’.

“I’m doing the promoting now and my goal is to try and make champions of my fighters,” he added.

“I’ve been retired, if that’s what you can call it, for 16 months.

“I announced I was going to make a comeback and I came back off holiday and went into a training camp for three or four weeks, but it just wasn’t the same.

“I’ve renewed my licence just in case one day I do wake up and think ‘come on lets give it another go’.

“I think the licence off the top of my head is £60, so I think if I pay that and one day let’s give it one more go then I am in a position to do so.”

It can be easy to forget the excitement Hatton brought to each of his fights, he was our immediate replacement for Nigel Benn, a man who would fight with his heart on his sleeve.

With his non typical European style, his pressure fighting and non stop assaults on opponents in the ring and his boy next door personality outside of it endeared him to fight fans and they loved him for it and followed him in droves.

Hatton’s finest hour came in June 2005 when he beat the fighter regarded at the time as the best pound for pound pugilist around in Kostya Tszyu and claim the IBF light welterweight crown in an unforgettable night in his home town of Manchester.

The Hitman realised his dream that night to become a legitimate world champion by a technical knockout after the Australian failed to answer the bell for the 12th round. Hatton was a heavy underdog for this fight, and the victory announced his entry to the upper echelons of the world boxing scene.

Prior to the fight the majority of boxing critics had given Hatton little or no chance and this victory was regarded as one of the best victories by an English boxer in the last 20 years.

Tszyu was the first to praise his conqueror, saying: “I have nothing to be ashamed of – I lost to the better fighter.”
.

Hatton, in turn, praised the dethroned champion. “If I can be half the champion Tszyu is, I’ll be doing very well,” he told the crowd of 22,000.

“He’s not a champion, he’s a champion-and-a-half. I’ve become a champion and now I want to become a great one.”

Five month’s later Hatton went on to win the WBA version of the light-welterweight championship and unifying the titles when he defeated Carlos Maussa in the ninth round of a unification bout.
.

.
That year, Hatton was named the 2005 Ring Magazine Fighter of the Year.

After that all Hattons fights became big box Office world title fights, including his move up to welterweight to win the WBA Welterweight crown from American Luis Collazo in May 2006, making him a two weight world champion and a British Boxing great in progress.

After setting up camp in The States he defeated Juan Urango after moving back down to light-welterweight which set him up a mouth watering clash with legend José Luis Castillo on the 23rd June 2007, at the Thomas & Mack Center in Las Vegas, Nevada. In round four, Hatton landed a “perfect” left hook to the liver, which put Castillo to the canvas in excruciating pain and with a reported broken rib he didn’t get up, Hatton’s career had reached the dizzy heights he had dreamed of.

But now The Hitman wanted to test himself against the best of the best and he got the fight he wanted against a boxer not only a great in his time but considered one of the best fighters to ever grace a ring, Floyd Mayweather.

Both fighters undefeated and contesting the WBC world welterweight title in December 2007, we were treated to one of the nights of boxing folklore in Las Vegas when over 40,000 Hatton fans crossed the pond to cheer on our man. The Americans had never seen anything like it and although Hatton lost to Mayweather by a 10th round stoppage, he gave Mayweather his hardest fight to date.
.

After being defeated by Floyd Mayweather questions were raised about whether Hatton should fight again, but he returned back to light-welterweight, beating Juan Lazcano at the City of Manchester Stadium in May 2008, and went on to defeat Pauli Malignaggi in Las Vegas six months later proving that he was still too much for his fellow world title contenders.
.

In his next fight he again stepped up to the pound for pound plate when he stepped in the ring with Manny Pacquiao, again a fighter considered by many to be the best around together with Mayweather. Unfortunately for Hatton that night the Pac-Man was sensational and he was not brutally getting knocked out in the second round, He hasn’t fought since.

Ricky is now a successful boxing promoter in his own right and seems to be enjoying his new career on the safe side of the ropes, he is putting something back into the game that gave him so much, but at the moment is not ready to give boxing back Ricky Hatton.

His accomplishments speak for themselves and with a record of 45 fights winning 32 by KO and just the 2 losses to Hall of famers Maywether and Pacquiao Ricky can be rest assured whatever he decides to do from here on in, that his British boxing mantel is already layed.