Ricky Hatton will check into a rehab clinic this week after tearfully confessing to a year-long cocaine addiction.
The former boxing world champ was caught on camera snorting “industrial” amounts of cocaine during a sordid drink-and-drugs binge a fortnight ago.
Hatton admitted being hooked on the Class A drug in an emotional heart-to-heart with fiancée Jennifer Dooley yesterday.She was horrified to discover Hatton, 31, had seven lines of cocaine during a night out in Manchester.
The bloated ex-boxer then admitted he had been taking the drug for almost a year – beginning shortly after his last fight, when he was knocked out in two rounds by Filipino boxer Manny Pacquiao.
Hatton was caught on film taking out a wrap of cocaine hidden in his shoe before chopping up lines with a credit card in a hotel room.
He then expertly snorted the drug through a rolled up £20 note.
In addition to the seven lines of cocaine that night, he drank 11 pints of Guinness, four vodkas, two glasses of wine and several sambuccas.
But a source close to the retired fighter, who became a national hero as world light-welterweight king, said: “He’s now vowed to get himself clean. He’ll go into a rehab clinic very soon and he has the support of Jen and the rest of his family.”
The source revealed Hatton – nicknamed The Hitman during his career – had struggled to cope with life outside the ring.
“He is very down – devastated, in fact,” the friend said. “He had a tearful talk with Jennifer and held his hands up. This has been coming for some time and everyone around him is hoping it’s a wake-up call.
“Ricky is disgusted with himself. He feels he has let himself, his family, his friends and his fans down.
“He has struggled to cope since giving up the fighting. He went from world champion to a retired ex-pro and it is hard for him.
“A few people around Ricky have been concerned for a while.”
Friends were also shocked to learn “anti-drugs” Hatton, who was awarded an MBE, was on cocaine.
One said: “He was always adamant he would never touch the stuff.”
And pal Emma Bowe, who witnessed him snorting cocaine, said: “If he carries on, he’ll kill himself. I’m really, really worried for him. If he tries to make a comeback in the ring, as he’s hinted, he could have a heart attack. “To see him abusing drugs was such a let-down. He was a role model.”
Yesterday, it also emerged Hatton was floored in a pub after a row over a fruit machine queue.
A bodybuilder twice his size accused him of pushing in and sent him sprawling across tables at the Railway Inn in Hyde, Manchester.
During the tail-end of his career, Hatton was known to balloon in weight between fights and revelled in the nickname Ricky “Fatton”.
During a four-day booze binge after his defeat by American Floyd Mayweather Jnr in 2007, the first of just two career losses, he downed 57 pints, 17 vodka and Red Bulls, four vodkas, three whisky chasers and a bottle of champagne.
Earlier this year, fellow boxer Joe Calzaghe also confessed to taking cocaine after retiring from the ring.
Source: mirror.co.uk
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