The collective outpouring that followed the shocking news of Ricky Hatton’s death underlined his status as one of the most loved UK sportspeople of the 21st century.
Hatton, a former two-weight boxing world champion, was found dead at his home in Manchester on September 14. He was just 46 years old.
The myriad tributes focused on both the ‘Hitman’s outstanding achievements as one of Britain’s greatest ever boxers, along with his everyman qualities that helped to persuade tens of thousands of his countrymen to make the pilgrimage to watch him fight the world’s best in Las Vegas.
Hatton’s career highs and lows are well-documented and etched into the rich sporting heritage of Manchester, a city that will unite in grief and love for Friday’s funeral. Understandably, obituaries all mentioned his seismic win to dethrone the great Kostya Tszyu to become the IBF light-welterweight champion for the first time in June 2005.
Then, Hatton’s quest for the top of the pound-for-pound mountain, which ultimately came up short against Floyd Mayweather in December 2007, was heavily covered — a night as famous for British fans drinking Vegas bars dry as it was for Mayweather’s brilliance and Hatton’s gallantry in the ring.
This was even the broad sweep of Sky’s excellent Hatton documentary in 2023. But to jump from Tszyu straight to Mayweather in the Ricky story means brushing over a run that would be career-defining for most boxers.
During this period, Hatton fought four times, winning three world titles across two weight divisions, topping bills at home and on the other side of the Atlantic. Heartache against Mayweather and Manny Pacquiao was still to come, but this was the period where Hatton cemented his greatness, secured the coveted Ring Magazine Fighter of the Year prize and rubber-stamped his status as a future Hall of Famer. It was also a dizzying 19 months that foreshadowed some of the problems to come.
From northern England to Nevada via Boston, this was Ricky Hatton’s world, and we were all lucky enough to be living in it.
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When Ricky Hatton ruled the world
Ricky Hatton def. Carlos Maussa (KO 9) — November 26, 2005; Sheffield, UK
Working-class idols, trademark left hooks… there were a few similarities between Hatton and another great folk hero of British boxing, Henry Cooper. Unfortunately, much like Muhammad Ali’s old foe, Hatton was terribly susceptible to cuts.
A few fights stand out from when he was building towards world level. An introduction to the American fight public against Gilbert Quiros in Detroit in January 2000 almost spun completely out of control when Hatton was badly cut over his left eye and complained to trainer Billy Graham that he was suffering from double vision. The fighter claimed the referee told him he would stop the fight after the second round if Hatton’s cut worsened and he promptly scythed through his big-punching Puerto Rican opponent before the session was out.
Nine months later, Hatton was coated in claret against Jon Thaxton, cut inside the opening seconds. But he boxed in ferocious and fearless fashion to win the British light welterweight title over the 12-round distance. That preceded Hatton’s long run in possession of the lightly regarded WBU belt, where a parade of international opponents were brought to the Manchester Arena to endure the Hitman.
One of those was veteran former world champion Vince Phillips, who cut Hatton above the right eye before suffering a shutout on two of the three scorecards. During this period, Hatton went to see a plastic surgeon to repair the damage around his protruding eyebrows. The specialist discovered a hardened lump of Vaseline that remained under the skin from a cut that was stitched but not properly cleared following a 1998 fight with Paul Denton.
Fast forward from that night at Everton Park Sports Centre to a sold-out Sheffield Arena in November 2005 and the freshly crowned IBF king at 140 pounds was cut above both eyes before the end of the third round in a unification clash with WBA champion Carlos Maussa.
In the couple of years prior to facing Tszyu, mooted bouts against various big names failed to come to fruition, straining the relationship between Hatton and his promoter Frank Warren that collapsed in the aftermath of his greatest triumph. One man unquestionably on the radar was Vivian Harris, but three weeks after Hatton vs. Tszyu, Harris was stunned by the unorthodox Maussa.
A lanky operator with rudimentary technique but dynamite in his hands, Maussa was an odd puzzle to encounter in elite boxing. If you squint, you might see a sort of 140-pound Deontay Wilder. Hatton was ragged early on, swinging off target and suffering eye damage through head clashes. On Sky Sports, former lightweight world champion and expert summariser Jim Watt chastised Hatton. The Mancunian’s recklessness had been “necessary against Tszyu, but not against this fellow”.
It had been a chaotic few months for Hatton, on the emotional comedown from beating Tszyu and straight into an acrimonious breakup with Warren, who had guided his whole career. In 2023, Graham remarked that the months after the Tszyu fight were “when the lunatics finally took over the asylum”.
Running the corner in the home city of Hatton’s new promoter, Dennis Hobson, the famously gruff and acidically sarcastic Graham worked masterfully in those frenetic one-minute breaks where a trainer must be part tactical guru and part psychotherapist, wearing both hats with total conviction. Cut and hindered against a big-punching and, frankly, bizarre opponent, ‘The Preacher’ calmly and gently encouraged his man.
“Get your feet in first, you’re going to break him in half,” Graham said. “You ain’t gotta just go blasting because you’re cut. I promise you, you can break this kid. Don’t take no crazy chances.”
After the fight, Hatton conceded to the “red mist” — both literally and figuratively — that led to him throwing “big bombs”. But he settled as Graham instructed, gradually breaking Maussa down by targeting his wiry frame. The visitor was deliciously open to the left hook upstairs and, after a few range-finders, Hatton detonated a perfect one in round nine to drop and discombobulate Maussa to the extent he could not continue.
The newly unified champion alluded to the “most difficult period of my boxing career” afterwards and dedicated his WBA belt to his father, Ray, sitting alongside him on the ring apron. But it was also Hatton’s greatest year, as Ring Magazine named the undefeated 40-0 world champion with 30 knockouts its Fighter of the Year for 2005. He was the first Briton in history to earn that distinction.
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Ricky Hatton def. Luis Collazo (UD12) — May 13, 2006; Boston, MA
Blue Moon was blaring out and the travelling army were making a racket. Ricky Hatton had arrived as a bill-topper Stateside. A big, rangy southpaw in a new weight class bringing the WBA welterweight title into the ring? No problem.
There are greater moments in Hatton’s career and snapshots more cherished by fans. But he never seemed more detached from normal sporting gravity than when, 15 seconds into his US coming-out party, the Mancunian saw Collazo spin away from a clinch untidily, clipped him with a left hook and sent him to the canvas.
Right then, it felt as if he could have walked out of TD Garden and across the Charles River if he fancied it. It was just a flash knockdown, but Hatton unloaded his trademark body attack on Collazo to emphatically close out a 10-8 round. Easy work? Boxing has a funny habit of disabusing you of those notions.
Hatton had only decided to step up to welterweight when his intended opponent, Juan Lazcano, withdrew nine weeks before fight night. His U.S. broadcaster had the final say on an opponent and HBO put forward two alternative foes: Vivian Harris and Collazo. Some of the shine had come off Harris after his defeat to Maussa, especially since Hatton took down the Colombian convincingly. Ricky was in the business of winning belts, so he decided to take a punt at becoming a two-weight champion.
“Moving up in weight and going straight into a world title fight was not my brightest idea,” Hatton said in his 2015 book Vegas Tales. Indeed, the 12th round was torrid as Collazo drilled the challenger with a peach of a left hand and followed up with clean hooks from both wings. Hatton was tottering and looked ready to fall, but bit down on his gumshield to see out victory. Two judges had the bout 115-112 in his favour, with the other returning 114-113 and classing that early knockdown as the difference between the two fighters.
Those two defining images of the fight — Hatton flooring Collazo in the first meaningful exchange and the American battering his opponent inside the first minute of the final round — give the impression of a bout of two halves. In reality, Collazo had brought things more or less dead even by the halfway point. Billy Graham told Hatton: “You’re in a fight now” and his man turned up his attacking output to win rounds seven, eight and nine. From that point, it was a case of eking out the victory against a bigger, stronger adversary.
In all the tributes to Hatton last month, he was quickly referred to as a two-weight world champion, but the fight that got him there was barely considered worth a mention. The manner of it — a late replacement and a gruelling and, at times, unconvincing performance — meant it was not one of Hatton’s favourites. But it’s also a win that aged well, as Collazo continued tangling with top welterweights well into the next decade.
“It was close, but still we have a new, dynamic and exciting fighter on the scene,” said Emanuel Steward on the HBO broadcast after the verdict was announced. With backers of such renown, Hatton turned towards the stage he wanted to occupy above any other.
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Ricky Hatton def. Juan Urango (UD12) — January 20, 2007; Las Vegas. NV
The venture up to 147 pounds meant the ever-stringent IBF stripped Hatton of their title. His tough time against Collazo convinced him to drop back down to light welterweight, and he wanted his old gold back.
Juan Urango was the man in possession following his victory over Naoufel Ben Rabeh for the vacant belt. Urango had an imposing knockout record and was, like Collazo, a southpaw, although not the tricky kind. His biggest weapon was a withering lead right hook and his nickname of the ‘Iron Twin’ alluded to his Tyson pretentions.
This God-fearing, hard-punching Colombian was a sellable opponent for HBO, and the upshot was a bill-topping outing in Las Vegas, allowing Hatton to live out the childhood fantasy of following in the footsteps of his hero Roberto Duran. The dream met with reality uncomfortably, though. January is hardly high season in the Mojave Desert, and freezing temperatures combined with the air conditioning pumping out Hatton’s Caesar’s Palace suite combined to bring him down with flu during fight week.
Hatton and Graham’s usual ritual of completing 15 high-intensity rounds on the trainer’s signature body bag was cut short at 12. The camp understandably kept Hatton’s illness under wraps, which contributed to lukewarm reviews of the performance. Knowing what we do now, it looks like a pretty smart night’s work.
Aware Urango’s best chance was to find Hatton standing in front of him, the man roared on by 3,000 at Paris Las Vegas carried out Graham’s plan to the letter early on. “Give him angles, don’t meet this f—– head-on, finish on some straight stuff,” the coach said. The first three rounds from Hatton were sparkling; he got in and out of range and scored freely to body and head.
Urango could not go with the Brit’s volume or variety and, despite an encouraging fifth round, was nursing a hefty deficit on the cards as the championship rounds approached. At this stage, however, Graham knew Hatton was somewhere close to his physical limit.
“Listen to me, Ricky: you’ve got to suck it up now,” he said in the corner. “I don’t give a f— about you winning the rounds; you’ve just got to get through it now. You’re winning, you’re miles in front. Don’t throw it away.” Those instructions preceded a clinch-ridden, attritional conclusion, during which Urango still wasn’t smart enough to pick up rounds as Hatton did enough fighting in bursts.
For a third fight in a row, Hatton had fought a champion and divested him of his belt. But the showreel U.S. win, the one needed to book the megafight he craved, had not emerged. Where better to turn thaN to a Mexican warrior who loved a phonebox scrap and had given Floyd Mayweather Jr. the toughest fight of his career?
Ricky Hatton def. Jose Luis Castillo (KO 4) — June 23, 2007; Las Vegas, NV
At the end of 2006, Hatton was ranked eighth on the Ring Magazine’s pound-for-pound list, one place ahead of Jose Luis Castillo. This was a fight more than worthy of being up in lights on the Vegas Strip.
But Castillo came into the bout under a cloud. After losing his all-time classic showdown with Diego Corrales in May 2005, Castillo won the rematch, knocking out his rival in the fourth, but only after missing the lightweight limit by three and a half pounds.
He missed weight again for their rubber match, which was duly cancelled. Corrales sued Castillo for punitive damages and the Nevada State Athletic Commission hit him with a ban. The commission’s fines for Castillo across the second and aborted third Corrales fights totalled $250,000.
‘El Temible’ eked out a split-decision win over Hermann Ngoudjo on the Hatton-Urango undercard to set up a much-needed payday. Six weeks before Castillo faced Hatton, Corrales was killed in a motorcycle accident, lending a sombre post-script to their rivalry. Corrales’ estate was suing him for lost earnings.
By contrast, Hatton enjoyed perfect preparations, with none of the previous concerns over illness or fighting a bigger opponent. He was primed and in peak condition as the travelling party, embossed by a brass band, packed out the Thomas & Mack Center.
The early exchanges set the tone, with both men fighting at close quarters and Hatton’s superior strength and foot speed putting him in the ascendancy. Marking a pleasing contrast to today’s “everything is awesome!” approach to boxing broadcasts, on HBO, Emanuel Steward voiced concerns during the first round that Castillo looked like an old fighter. This was not the man who had forced Mayweather to the brink in April 2002.
In the heat of battle, Hatton had a similar assessment, bringing him into conflict with Graham, who wanted to see a repeat of the in-and-out tactics that worked so effectively early on against Urango. As recalled in Vegas Tales, Hatton protested after being admonished by his coach at the end of round two.
“You’re not in there with him, Billy,” he said. “Every time I hit him, I hurt him. Every time I nudge him, he feels weak as f—, Bill. I swear to God. He’s not going to last two or three more rounds.”
And so it proved. In round four, Hatton moved away after being caught by a Castillo left hook to the head, opening up the angle to unleash his favourite left hook to the body. Unfurling a move honed countless times in Graham’s Phoenix camp, Hatton threw a short left upstairs before quickly switching the attack to the vulnerable spot behind Castillo’s right elbow. He spotted and landed the perfect liver shot.
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“I know that I’d thrown the punch with my entire body weight, from the boots up and hit him exactly where I wanted to, round the side of the rib cage, where there’s less muscle to protect the bones. As soon as it lands, I know that I’ve done some damage — when you get them in the right spot, they crumple like a punctured balloon,” Hatton recalled.
Castillo recoiled and took a knee, assuming the familiar position of a fighter waiting for the referee to reach the count of eight and resume. The only problem was that he couldn’t really breathe, hanging his gumshield out of his mouth in a forlorn attempt to remedy a hopeless situation. Castillo, who was later reported to have suffered four broken ribs from Hatton’s honey punch, was counted out.
Hatton celebrated jubilantly, revelled in the moment and successfully pricked Mayweather’s ego in a post-fight interview where he claimed the four rounds he shared with Castillo contained more excitement than ‘Money’s entire career.
In the space of a few minutes, Hatton had punched and talked his way into a megafight, with all its trappings and mixed blessings. Like the Tszyu triumph, the sound and colour of his brave and devastating loss to Mayweather is a towering career monument. But those days of discovery and combative conquest in between had a magic all of their own. The fact that they’re rarely the first stories anyone tells about Ricky Hatton highlights just how special he was.
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