It’s looking more and more likely that Ricky Hatton may be finished in the ring – as a fighter, if not as a promoter. The final act which saw the curtain fall on the British folk hero’s last scene came from the flashing fists of the Filipino phenomenon Manny Pacquiao 
– whose inexorable rise, in the ring and electioneering, continues.
– whose inexorable rise, in the ring and electioneering, continues.
Pugilism and politics are the south-east Asian’s game.After Floyd Mayweather Jnr inflicted Hatton’s first career defeat and created the blueprint in December 2008, the whirlwind from Mindanao ripped Hatton apart and bludgeoned him to flatness on the canvas.
It was ugly to witness. After being released from hospital, Hatton failed to show to speak to the British media the next morning at the MGM Grand in Las Vegas. It was a sign. With hindsight, it looks as if it were a warning sign. Hatton is reluctant to speak to the media. He inhabits in a netherworld in his mind at present. Should he stay or should he go…?
We’ve all offered our sixpence worth, but to be frank, it is nothing to do with us. Only the fighter can decide. Ask Angelo Dundee. He told me recently he tried it many times with Muhammad Ali, but it was in one ear and out the other. Ali ducked and dived the issue with Dundee, every time it was broached.
Over the last month, we are told a sozzled Hatton, on a stag do abroad, and after a long weekend of partying, blurted out to those close to him that he could not face the long road back. It was reported as fact by the British tabloids. There was no statement from Hatton to follow.
The CEO of Hatton Promotions, Gareth Williams, insisted to me at the time that no decision had been taken and that Hatton, if retiring, would have called a press conference to announce time on his career. The pair met the day after I spoke to Williams. His reply was that no decision had been made.
No press conference, no announcement followed. Nary a word. David Haye held a week of news conferences in Manchester two weeks ago. He used Hatton’s gym in Hyde to spar lightly and hit the bags on the Thursday and Friday nights before the fight with Ruiz.
Some observers made of it that Haye had issues ahead of his fight. It was merely that he was restless, and had not been able to spar because of a cut above his eye. Insiders from the Haye camp have told me that the fighter was eager to get in there, and the 30 minute drive to Hyde from the plush Lowry Hotel, in Salford, where Haye and his entourage stayed throughout the week of preparations, helped to keep the restless beast in Haye in its place. The beast in him needed exercising. But Hatton, throughout it all, kept a low profile. There were even stories, battened down, and being chased by one tabloid newspaper, that Haye and Hatton had fallen out. Nonsense.
But Hatton was very quiet during the week. On Thursday night, he attended a boxing show at The Ritzy in Manchester. Tyson Fury, the heavyweight boxer promoted by Mick Hennessy, and 12 hundred spectators were there. No comments from Hatton that night.
This week, there were still no comments from Hatton. Yet the Manchester Evening News, for whom Hatton writes a ghosted column, printed a story – without a single quote from Hatton – indicating that his career was over, and that he had turned down a two-fight deal with firstly, Erik Morales, the former super-featherweight world champion, who is coming back from retirement, followed by a second contest with Juan Manuel Marquez later in the year.
Robert Diaz, the Golden Boy Promotions matchmaker, was in town on Haye business that week. He will have slid the invites, through Gareth Williams, under Hatton’s door. It looks like the prospect of shifting 50lbs to get down to the weight does not appeal to Hatton at present. That may yet change. But for now, the British former two-weight world champion is happy playing promoter to his brother Matthew, et al.
We can all blame the brilliance and brutality of Manny Pacquiao for that…
Source: blogs.telegraph.co.uk
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