Ricky Hatton
Ricky Hatton during training
Richard " Ricky" John Hatton MBE ( born October 6, 1978 in Stockport, Greater Manchester ) is a former British professional boxer and WBA, IBF, IBO and Ring Magazine Light Welterweight World Champion was and WBA welterweight champion.
He is the older brother of boxer Matthew Hatton.
Amateur
As an amateur Hatton won 73 fights in seven defeats (two against Brähmer ). At the Junior World Championships in 1996 in Havana, Cuba, he won by KO in the first round against Omar Nabaccie, beat Roberto Guerra and Keith Kemp on points, but failed in the semi-final on Russians Timur Nergadze and won the bronze medal in the light welterweight. The following year he was English Champion in the same weight class.
Professional career
Hatton was 1997 Light Welterweight his professional debut and was despite rather weaker opponents construction due to its action-packed style very popular in his homeland. He was long the most influential British promoter Frank Warren under contract and won the 2000 British lightweight championship and in 2001 the athletic insignificant and unrecognized WBU title. He defended that title 15 times against opponents, none of which was highly rated by international journals such as the " Ring Magazine ". His popularity did not diminish, he punched regularly in Manchester in front of 20,000 spectators and was marketed by Warren US- American partner Showtime.
In 2005 came a significant change in his opponent choice. He fought against IBF champion Kostya Tszyu, who was regarded at the time as the best boxer of this weight class. Even if Tszyu was almost 36 years old, it still was considered a surprise that Hatton could beat him prematurely. Tszyu gave up the struggle after the eleventh round, because he was behind on points hopeless. Hatton parted in the connection of Warren, who promptly sued him, and punched against the WBA champion Carlos Maussa he beat by knockout in the ninth round.
The " Ring Magazine " chose Hatton in 2005 as the first British, since this honor (1928 ) is awarded to "Boxer of the Year". A little later he resigned his IBF and WBA light welterweight title to boxing on 13 May 2006 against the WBA welterweight titlist Luis Collazo. This was his first major fight in the welterweight division and his first appearance in the United States and on the U.S. TV channel HBO. Hatton defeated the southpaw Collazo only with much effort and relatively scarce on points.
Subsequently, negotiations took place for a fight against Oktay Urkal who had the mandatory challenger position for the WBA welterweight title in the Federation. Originally Urkal should already compete against Collazo, this fight was canceled several times for various reasons. To free from the obligation Collazo challenge and to enable significantly more lucrative fight against Hatton, it was agreed with Urkals promoter Wilfried Sauerland, that the winner of the fight against Collazo Hatton to defend his title within 120 days against Urkal. Instead of mandatory defense comply, Hatton put the title but down again to return to the light welterweight.
There, now the Colombian southpaw Juan Urango had won the vacant title. This he defeated on January 20, 2007 in Las Vegas on points. Immediately after the fight Hatton put the title but again down to fight in June 2007 against the Mexican Jose Luis Castillo, instead of competing against his mandatory challenger Lovemore N'dou. Hatton won the fight against Castillo by KO in the fourth round.
On December 8, 2007 Ricky Hatton stepped up to the MGM Grand Hotel (Las Vegas ) against the undefeated Floyd Mayweather junior. It related to the WBC welterweight title. After a hard fight Mayweather won the tenth of twelve rounds provided by technical knockout.
After his loss to Mayweather Hatton boxed again in the light welterweight. On 24 May 2008, he stepped in front of nearly 57,000 spectators in the City of Manchester Stadium against the Mexican Juan Lazcano on. This fight he was able to win by a unanimous point decision. After the fight, however, Hatton parted with his longtime trainer, Billy Graham. A few weeks later it was announced that Floyd Mayweather Snr new coach of Hatton is.
22 November 2008 Hatton returned to the MGM Grand, where he successfully defended his IBO light welterweight title against Italian-American Paul Malignaggi successfully. Hatton won by technical whacked as the coach of Malignaggi, Buddy McGirt, in the eleventh round threw in the towel and thus gave up the fight, as his protege hopeless was behind on points.
In February 2009, he founded his own promotion company Hatton Promotions. For the 2nd May 2009, a duel against the Filipino Manny Pacquiao in Las Vegas has been used. Here, however, Hatton was impossible to block, had already in the first round twice to the ground and was already difficult in the second round co In March 2010, finally Hatton announced his retirement from boxing. However, in September 2012, he announced a comeback and fought on November 24, 2012 in Manchester against the Ukrainian Vyacheslav Sentschenko. To the point slips leader Hatton went in this fight in the ninth round to the ground, lost by KO and then finally ended his career.
Achievements at a glance
Light Welterweight
Welterweight
Other honors
- 2005: Ring Magazine's Boxer of the Year ( As the first Briton ever)
- 2005: ESPN Boxer of the Year
- 2007: Member of the British Empire ( MBE)
According to independent computer ranking of BoxRec, he is regarded as the most successful semi- welterweight boxer in the British history. In the eternal European ranking it 3rd place and in the eternal World No. 12