Richard John "Ricky" Hatton, (born October 6, 1978) is a British former professional boxer and current boxing promoter. During his career he held the WBA (Super), IBF, IBO and The Ring magazine light welterweight titles, as well as the WBA welterweight title. After losing to Manny Pacquiao in 2009, Hatton put his career on a long hiatus, with rumors of a comeback circulating the media. On July 7, 2011, Haton announced his retirement from the sport, but on September 14, 2012, more than three years after his last fight, Hatton confirmed his comeback to professional boxing. After losing to Viacheslav Senchenko in his first match back on November 24, 2012, Hatton announced his final retirement.

Biography

Born in Stockport, Hatton was raised on the Hattersley council estate in Hyde, Greater Manchester and trained at the Sale West ABC (Racecourse Estate). He was educated at Hattersley High School. His grandfather and his father both played for Rochdale and Hatton had a trial for the youth team. He found a local boxing club in Hyde to train at. His entrance music is the Manchester City club song "Blue Moon", as performed by the band "Supra." At the age of 14, Hatton was taken by his uncles Ged and Paul to Manchester United's Old Trafford stadium to watch the second fight between Nigel Benn and Chris Eubank. He joined the family carpet business on leaving school, but after he cut four of his fingers with a Stanley knife, his father made him a salesman to prevent him from losing his fingers.

Boxing Career

Hatton had a short amateur career, in which he won seven British titles and represented his country at the 1996 AIBA Youth World Boxing Championships. His elimination in the semi finals caused controversy. Four of the five judges awarded the contest to Hatton, but under the scoring rules Hatton was defeated as the fifth judge gave the match to Hatton's opponent by 16 points. The judge was later found to have accepted a bribe, and disillusioned with the amateur governing bodies, Hatton turned professional at the age of 18.

Hatton was based at Billy "The Preacher" Graham's gym in Moss Side, where fellow boxers included Carl Thompson and Michael Gomez. Hatton's debut fight was on September 10, 1997, against Colin McAuley in Widnes at Kingsway Leisure Centre. Hatton won by a TKO in the first round, while in his second fight he boxed at Madison Square Garden in New York. Soon he was fighting on the undercard of contests involving major British boxers, such as the two World Boxing Organization (WBO) cruiserweight title fights between Thompson and Chris Eubank in 1998. In 1999 the British Boxing Writer' Club named Hatton their Young Boxer of the Year. His first international title came in May 1999, when he defeated Dillon Carew for the WBO inter-continental light-welterweight title.

Hatton's next four fights after gaining the WBO inter-continental belt were all won within four rounds. He then gained the World Boxing association (WBA) inter-continental title following a unification bout against Giuseppe Lauri. The following month he fought Jon Thaxton for the British title. Despite sustaining a cut over his left eye in the first round, Hatton continued for the full 12 rounds and won on points, the first time in his career that he had been taken beyond six rounds. As the cut was his fourth above the same eye, Hatton had plastic surgery on his eyebrow that November, with a view to a world title shot in the spring. Hatton claimed the vacant World Boxing Union (WBU) light-welterweight title in March 2001, having sent opponent Tony Pep to the canvas three times in the process.

Light Welterweight

Hatton vs Tszyu

On June 5, 2005, Hatton defeated The Ring & IBF Light Welterweight Champion Kostya Tszyu, then widely regarded as one of the top pound-for-pound boxers in the world 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.