Ricky Hatton: British Boxing's Tough Guy

Ricky Hatton was born October 6, 1978 in Stockport, part of the Manchester metropolitan area and came from a footballing rather than a boxing family. Both Hatton's grandfather and father were professional soccer players with Rochdale, a second-tier English club. However, Hatton was drawn to boxing after visiting the boxing gym in Hyde. As an amateur boxer, Hatton ran up a 73-7 record and held a ABA Junior Welterweight title. After finishing school, Hatton briefly worked in the family carpet business, both in the shop and as a salesman, but eventually turned to prizefighting. He turned pro in September 1997, just a few weeks shy of his 19th birthday.

Standing 5'7" with a mere 65" reach, Ricky Hatton was a pug-armed, stocky fighter, and whether it was by way of compensation or out of sheer love of mixing it up, the Briton developed an all-action style that almost epitomized the concept of being a "swarmer." Hatton was a strong fighter, but never a puncher in the one-shot knockout artist sense of the word. Instead, Hatton worked by coming forward and throwing punches in punches, thereby using sustained pressure to score points and wear down his opponents. Even so, his fierce, machine gun-style attack did knockout many rivals, earning him the nickname "Hitman." Such an approach demanded grit and a cast-iron chin, because he inevitably ate a lot of punches in pursuing it.

Hatton vaulted up the 140 lbs ranks, and by 1999 he was already wearing the WBO's Inter-Continental strap around his waste. Although technically worthless, it did mark him as a man to watch. In 2001, "The Hitman" traded that for the just-as-worthless WBU Light Welterweight Title. The WBU was a fringe boxing organization which was mocked at the time and continues to be lightly regarded today, and Hatton's 2001-2004 reign as WBU champ was the organization's sole noteworthy achievement. For the most part, that reign was marked by a sustained feast on tomato cans and journeymen, although Hatton did knockout Freddie Pendleton and overwhelm and out-point Vince Phillips during that time. They were good fighters and former champs, although Pendleton was 38 and Phillips 40 when they fought Hatton and both were shopworn. Hatton also handed a beat-down to durable fringe contender Ben Tackie.

The Big Time
Having never fought a good man in his prime, Ricky Hatton was surrounded by question marks when he signed to challenge World Light Welterweight Champion Kostya Tszyu in June 2005. As a swarmer, Hatton was undeniably tough but also looked crude. On the other hand, Tszyu was a deadly boxer-puncher who had duked it out with the best in the division and prevailed. Few gave Hatton much of a chance, but the man from Stockport went out that night at the M.E.N. Arena and fought the fight of his career. Grabbing onto Tszyu's belt buckle, Hatton out-muscled the champion (who was no slouch in the strength department) and stayed inside the Russo-Australian's optimum punching range. With the worst of Tszyu's power neutralized, Hatton landed the leather. Exhausted, Tszyu quit at the end of the 11th Round, and would retire from boxing after the fight. Against the expectations of everyone outside of Hatton's die-hard fans, the brawling Brit had overthrown one of boxing's pound-for-pound best.

Loss of Direction
Although Tszyu had once held every world title belt of note in the division, by 2005 he had relinquished them all excepting the IBF belt to avoid onerous multiple mandatory contenders and equally onerous sanctioning fees. Thus, Hatton stood only as the IBF Light Welterweight Champion. In 2005, big names like Arturo Gatti, Miguel Cotto and Floyd Mayweather, Jr. were in the division, but somehow Hatton never capitalized on his crash entry into the big leagues. Although he knocked out WBA belt-holder Carlos Maussa in November 2005 and become the WBA-IBF champion, Hatton was instead looking at fighting as a welterweight.

Moving up to 147 lbs, Ricky Hatton challenged WBA Welterweight Champion Luis Collazo. Hatton knocked Collazo down in the 1st, but was wobbled himself in the final round, and few outside of Britain thought Hatton won the fight. The bout proved that going up to 147 lbs was a bad call for Hatton, who quickly dropped back down to 140 lbs. in 2007, where he fought an undefeated Juan Urango for his old IBF belt. Hatton out-pointed Urango, and then followed up by trashing a shopworn Jose Luis Castillo.

Austerlitz
Ricky "The Hitman" Hatton's big splash against Tszyu had gone a long way to conceal that he was headed for a fall. Commentators were already hinting that Hatton "liked a pint at the local pub too much," which was really a euphemism for Hatton liking ten pints at the local pub too much. Hatton's weight ballooned between fights, which combined with the drinking would accelerate the decline of any fighter. It was doubly deadly to Hatton, however, as the Briton's style was heavily dependent on showing up as the toughest, best-conditioned athlete around on any given night. So it was as a diminished fighter that Hatton signed to fight superstar Floyd Mayweather, Jr.

Hatton was facing an uphill struggle as it was. Mayweather was the great defensive master of his generation, a speedy slickster who made the sweet science of hitting without being hit into an art. The fight was also to be for Mayweather's welterweight crown, and thus at a weight that was already shown as bad for Hatton. Finally, referee Joe Cortez seemed determined to break up any effort on the part of Hatton to make the fight a rough, inside contest. The result of all these disadvantages is that while Hatton did very well in the early rounds, he was unable to sustain any momentum. In the middle rounds, Cortez's officiating and Mayweather's slickness stymied him. After that, Hatton's lack of steam only compounded matters and "The Hitman" was stopped in the 10th.

Starting his 2008 comeback, Hatton defeated fringe contender Juan Lazcano and then stopped Paulie Malignaggi in the 11th. Malignaggi was slick former IBF champ who had lost only to Miguel Cotto at that time, but he was a feather-fist and thus ill-equipped to halt the bull rush of a man like Hatton. That win put Hatton squarely in the cross-hairs of Manny Pacquiao.

In May 2009, Hatton met the Pacman at the MGM Grand in Las Vegas. He came out seeking to apply pressure and make it a rough fight, but against the Filipino tornado that was an entirely wrong-headed tactic. Pacquiao crushed Hatton with a combination of speed, power and accuracy in two rounds.

Retirement
Ricky Hatton never formally announced his retirement, but for all intents and purposes his boxing career is over. His record stands at 44-2 with 32 KOs and as a two-time 140 lbs and one-time 147 lbs champion. He was The Ring magazine's Fighter of the Year in 2005, the first time that award was ever given to a British fighter, and was granted an MBE (Member, Order of the British Empire) in 2007. After being exposed on YouTube snorting cocaine in a hotel room, Hatton was admitted into rehab in September 2010 and later had his UK boxing license withdrawn.

Sources: guardian.co.uk/sport/2010/sep/23/ricky-hatton-boxing-license-withdrawn; boxrec.com; The Ring; live fight footage.