Ricky Hatton, known in the ring as ‘The Hitman’, has recently called time on his glittering career, a career that spanned 47 fights including a massive 45 wins, and only 2 losses. During his career Ricky defeated many World Champions and top level operators, names such as Luis Collazo, Juan Urango, Jose Luis Castillo, and the biggest scalp on the record, Kostya Tszyu.
After winning the ABA’s on more than one occasion, he decided the time had come to turn pro. After steamrollering his first 21 opponents, he got his chance to win the British title in an all domestic clash with Jonathan Thaxton. He went on to win the fight by a wide decision, referee Paul Thomas scoring the bout 117-113 in Hatton’s favour.
The next time Ricky challenged for a major belt was on the 4th June 2005 against the dangerous Russian born Australian, Kostya Tszyu, for his IBF light welterweight title. Frank Warren had managed to deliver the title fight in Ricky’s hometown after he had stopped Ray Oliveira in the 10th round in his previous fight. Coming into the fight Ricky was a huge underdog, who many expected to lose as Kostya Tszyu was regarded as one of the best pound for pound fighters around.
Tszyu was known to be a slow starter and this was shown in the fight as Ricky won the first few rounds, immediately utilising that aggressive style of his. Tszyu regained some composure in the middle rounds, and began to box smartly, fighting well on the inside. A lot of the rounds were spent in the clinch and not as much boxing as one would have hoped for, but Ricky was still coming out on top.
Both fighters spent plenty of time going to the body in a real battle of strength and endurance. During the 7th round Kostya’s eye had swollen up as a result of the war that both fighters were involved in, and at one point Hatton touched down, but the referee ruled it a slip.
As the fight progressed Ricky continued to come forward and walk through bomb after bomb which seemed to surprise Kostya, it was like he had ran out of ideas. By the time the end of the 11th round came he was all out. His trainer Johnny Lewis threw in the towel handing Ricky the finest victory of his career and the IBF light welterweight title.
In the aftermath of the Kostya Tszyu fight Hatton parted company with his promoter Frank Warren. The reason behind this was that Ricky had received offers from promotional company’s such as Golden Boy, Top Rank and Don King, who would make him a lot more money than he was making under Warren. The split from Warren was messy to say the least. Frank claimed that there was an agreement in place for him to promote Ricky’s future fights and expected that agreement to be honoured. The Hatton’s had other ideas and went ahead with the split from Warren. Ricky then signed for his next fight to be promoted by Dennis Hobson.
Hatton’s next opponent was a dangerous defence against the Colombian, Carlos Maussa. Many fighters would opt for an easy defence after winning a world title but not Ricky, he wanted to consistently challenge himself and fight the best, add to that the bout was a unification fight as the WBA title was on the line as well.
After a tough nine rounds, in which Ricky had two cuts opened up, one above each eye due to a clash of heads, he came through with a sensational knockout. Hatton had his man in the corner after an unrelenting assault, and as Maussa snapped a jab out, Ricky ducked down to avoid it, and using the momentum as he popped back up, he threw a huge, lunging left hook that knocked Maussa’s lights out. He was never going to beat the count and Ricky scored a fantastic 9th round KO, and in turn unifying, as he captured the WBA title as well as retaining his IBF belt. Ricky would later say “that shot would have knocked a horse out”
After the success of the Maussa fight, Hatton signed a three fight deal with Dennis Hobson, all three of which would be fought across the pond in the United States. Hobson delivered and got Ricky a title shot against Luis Collazo in Boston, Massachusetts, scheduled for the 13th May 2006. This meant though that Ricky would have to leave the comfort zone of 140 pounds, and move up to 147 pounds to contest for the Collazo’s WBA title. The fight turned out to be one of the hardest of Ricky’s career. He started off brilliantly, knocking Collazo down in the first few seconds of the opening round. Collazo came back strong though and gave Ricky a real war. Both fighters going to the trenches in a real slugfest. The cleaner work was coming from Collazo but Hatton was hanging in there, no stranger to a good scrap.
Ricky was looking dead on his feet as the end of the fight loomed but he hung in there, eager to save his travelling fans a wasted trip, holding and clinching, doing just enough to see himself through to the final bell. As the result was announced it was jubilation for Hatton and his faithful following. The scorecards read: 115-112, 115-112 and 114-113, scoring it a unanimous decision in Hatton’s favour.
Now a two weight world champion, Ricky admitted that it was the hardest fight he’d been in to date and that he didn’t expect Collazo to be as powerful and cagey as he was. Collazo demanded a rematch in England but Ricky had other ideas and wanted to move on to bigger and better things.
His next fight was against Juan Urango at the Paris hotel, Las Vegas on 20th January 2007. The fight was as one sided as predicted and Hatton won a wide unanimous decision, losing only one round on all three judges scorecards: 119-109. Hatton thus regained the IBF title that had been stripped from him previously.
On the undercard the Mexican legend Jose Luis Castillo took on Herman Ngoudjo, Castillo came through the fight winning a split decision, effectively setting up a showdown between Ricky and himself.
The fight was made for the 23rd June 2007 at the Thomas and Mack Center in Las Vegas. The first round began and Ricky stormed out of the blocks, both fighters meeting in the centre of the ring, two modern day warriors.
Ricky looked sharp and up for the bout landing some nice uppercuts and going to the body, looking impressive in the opening round.
The second round was virtually the same with Ricky the better of the two fighters, continuing to test the body of his opponent.
In the third Castillo seemed to have found his feet and landed a couple of crisp left hooks to the body and having a better round as a whole. His momentum was slowed in the fourth though as he had a point deducted for repeated low blows. The end came shortly afterwards. Ricky stalked Castillo to the ropes and unleashed a vicious left hook to the kidney, smashing all of the air out of his opponent. Castillo took a knee with his gumshield hanging out, struggling to catch a breath, he was never beating the count. It was a historic win for Ricky, Castillo had never been sent to the canvas in his 17 year career, and Ricky had stopped him in 4 rounds!
In the days following the fight Ricky claimed that the shot broke four of Castillo’s ribs. The shot was branded by both Jose Luis and Bob Arum as the ‘perfect’ shot. In the post fight interview Hatton called out Mayweather, feeling he was ready to challenge Floyd’s undefeated record.
The fight was made for the 8th December 2007 at the MGM Grand and was billed as ‘Undefeated’. As per usual Ricky took a massive following over for the fight and it sold out within weeks. It was seen as the biggest welterweight fight since Oscar De La Hoya vs Felix Trinidad.
Ricky started brightly in the first round, even knocking Floyd off balance at one point with a left jab. As the fight progressed Ricky was the more eager of the two to trade and scrap but Floyd was happy to sit behind his jab and counter. In the third round Floyd opened up a cut above Ricky’s right eye, a seemingly recurring problem for the Hitman. Floyd looked the better of the two overall, boxing smart and very well technically, it was a great example of ‘the boxer vs the brawler’, the boxer yet again proving to be the better of the two. It wasn’t only Floyd that was frustrating Ricky though, referee Joe Cortez was proving to be a real pain as he wouldn’t let Ricky fight on the inside, probably the biggest attribute to Ricky’s game. In the 6th round he deducted a point from Hatton due to ‘apparently’ hitting Floyd in the back of the head, replays showed that the punch in fact hit the ropes and not Floyd’s head. The tempo, pace and rhythm of the fight was still being set by Floyd and he looked as though he was finally figuring the Hitman out.
The 10th round proved to be the deciding round in the fight and around a minute in, Floyd produced one of the best pieces of skill and technique I have ever seen in a boxing ring. He was pinned down in the corner and as Ricky came forward and lunged with a left hook, Floyd pivoted out of the way, and as he pivoted he threw a left hook that landed flush on the temple of Hatton, already off balance from the lunge, Ricky pole-axed head first off of the ring post and went crashing to the canvas. The punch is known as a check hook.
Ricky managed to beat the count but Floyd continued the assault, and as Hatton was still dazed from the check hook, he was sent back to the canvas for the second and last time in the fight as Joe Cortez waved the fight off, handing the Hitman the first defeat of his professional career.
The defeat was gut-wrenching for Hatton but he was back in action five months later. It had always been his dream to fight inside the home of his beloved club Manchester City and he decided it was time to repay his loyal following for all the travelling they had done to watch him fight. With this in mind, a fight against Juan Lazcano was arranged for 24th May 2008 at the City of Manchester Stadium. The stadium was packed out on the night with 55,000 spectators, a post world war II record! After overcoming a couple of minor scares, Hatton won a wide unanimous decision. The judges scorecards reading: 120-110, 118-110, 120-108
After the Lazcano fight Hatton parted ways with his trainer Billy Graham and brought in Floyd Mayweather Sr.
His next fight was against the American Italian, Paul Malignaggi. Malignaggi had won a split decision over Lovemore N’dou on the Hatton-Lazcano undercard to set up the bout, similar to when Castillo fought on the Hatton-Urango undercard to set up a meeting between the two of them. The fight was set to be staged at the MGM Grand on the 22nd November 2008 meaning another trip across the pond for the Hatton faithful. The fight ended prematurely in the 11th round. Paulie didn’t look to be in any trouble but Buddy McGirt his trainer had warned him in the previous round, “if you don’t start throwing anything back, I’m going to throw in the towel”. Ricky was throwing a lot of punches and landing with no return fire from Malignaggi. True to his words, McGirt threw the towel in handing Hatton an 11th round TKO. Malignaggi would later leave McGirt in search of a new trainer. This fight was to be the last victory of Hatton’s illustrious career.
It was now a waiting game as Ricky was holding out to see who the winner would be in the Dream Match, between Oscar De La Hoya and Manny Pacquiao, which was due to take place the following month on the 6th December. Oscar De La Hoya was a strong favourite but Manny caused a huge upset on fight night, forcing Oscar’s corner to throw in the towel as he returned to his stool at the end of the 8th.
The fight was made between Hatton and Pacquiao for the 2nd May 2009 at the MGM Grand, it was billed as ‘The Battle of East and West’. The build up was huge as the trainers were both at each others necks. A trophy was made for the winning trainer, it was named ‘The World’s Best Trainer’, and it would be awarded to either Floyd Mayweather Sr or Freddie Roach. Fight night came and it was a disastrous night for Ricky. He was knocked down twice in the first round but managed to reach the bell.
In the second round he was caught by a monstrous left cross that put his lights out for good. Referee Kenny Bayless didn’t even bother counting, Hatton’s eyes were gone and he waved the fight off. Flashbacks of the Mayweather fight as he lay there, spread eagled and motionless on the canvas. A heartbreaking sight for the watching Hatton fans and his close family. Luckily he regained consciousness and was given the all clear after being taken straight to hospital.
There has been on and off speculation of a Hatton return to the ring ever since but he has stated he doesn’t have the fire or the desire to return to the ring, and until it returns, he won’t be making a comeback.
On the 12th September 2009 the News of the World published a video on their site of Ricky Hatton caught on camera taking the class A drug cocaine and had the photo splashed across the front page. It sent shock waves around the boxing world to see what the once great, battle hardened brawler had resorted to. He admitted himself into drugs and alcohol rehabilitation the following day.
It came to light via his father, Ray, that the defeats against Mayweather and Pacquiao had really affected him mentally, he suffered from depression as a result. A sad sight for his loyal fans who will without a doubt wish him the best of luck as he begins his hardest challenge to date in his fight against his demons. A challenge in which I’m 100% sure he will be victorious with the help and support from his family, friends and his faithful following.
As a huge fan of Ricky and one of his many followers, I wish Ricky the best of luck and am behind him all the way. On a personal level it’s the least I owe him after he got me into the fantastic sport of boxing, as fans I think we all owe it to him for all the brilliant trips abroad he’s given us and the many nights of joy.
One thing is for sure, there has never been a following like the Hitman’s, nor will there ever be in my opinion. It will take a lot for another fighter to build up a following even close, anything near to the electricity that the Hatton fans created will be seen as an achievement.
I’ll never forget some of the packed out nights in the MGM, or the M.E.N filled to the roof. What a huge buzz and a thrill to say I’ve witnessed it, and am extremely privileged to have been part of.
I’m sure we’ll have the good, old Ricky back soon enough, whether he fights again or not is another story, but a Ricky in good health will do me just fine.
Thanks for all the memories and the good times champ!
