Paid Members wandshogun09 Posted September 14, 2025 Paid Members Posted September 14, 2025 The scary thing is he was on about coming out of retirement as recently as July… Quote
jimufctna24 Posted September 14, 2025 Posted September 14, 2025 6 minutes ago, NeverYield said: A great memory to have, Hatton fights had undeniable energy. That was the Senchenko fight that wasn't it, I read his book that came out not long after that 'War and Peace: My Story', great book, might have to dig it out again. It was the Senchenko bout, yeah. I was sat in the heavens of the arena with my old man. From what I recall about his book it was a very candid account of his life. I remember reading the parts where he discussed the split from Graham and his mental health issues. I may have to dig it out myself. Quote
NeverYield Posted September 14, 2025 Posted September 14, 2025 44 minutes ago, jimufctna24 said: It was the Senchenko bout, yeah. I was sat in the heavens of the arena with my old man. From what I recall about his book it was a very candid account of his life. I remember reading the parts where he discussed the split from Graham and his mental health issues. I may have to dig it out myself. It is yeah and its definitely worth a read. 'The Hitman' is another good one too, although that came out years ago, there is another one too called 'Vegas Tales' and that one I haven't read but going by the other two sure it would be worth it and contain some comical stories. Quote
Paid Members wandshogun09 Posted September 14, 2025 Paid Members Posted September 14, 2025 Haven’t seen it in years but I remember enjoying this documentary on the build up to that last fight with Senchenko… Quote
NeverYield Posted September 14, 2025 Posted September 14, 2025 Yes was a good watch that one, I always liked the little clip of him in the gym with 'Taker and Batista in the build up to Mayweather aswell. Hatton was a true household name when I think back, one of those fighters who truly piqued interest among people who wouldln't usually follow a sport. Quote
Paid Members wandshogun09 Posted September 14, 2025 Paid Members Posted September 14, 2025 Was he the most loved British boxer ever? Has to be right? People loved Bruno, Nigel Benn had a strong following and so on. Calzaghe didn’t really get his full due until after he retired. I don’t think there’s another UK fighter who could’ve brought such an army of fans with him to Vegas like Hatton did for the Mayweather and Pacquiao fights. Quote
NeverYield Posted September 14, 2025 Posted September 14, 2025 I would say so yes, like you say he literally did bring an army to Vegas and the build up to the Mayweather and Pac fights seemed to truly capture peoples imaginations in terms of the boxing faithful and casuals alike. And atmospheres at his fights were incredible. Quote
jimufctna24 Posted September 14, 2025 Posted September 14, 2025 (edited) 12 minutes ago, wandshogun09 said: Was he the most loved British boxer ever? Has to be right? People loved Bruno, Nigel Benn had a strong following and so on. Calzaghe didn’t really get his full due until after he retired. I don’t think there’s another UK fighter who could’ve brought such an army of fans with him to Vegas like Hatton did for the Mayweather and Pacquiao fights. I was too young to get a proper read on how popular Bruno was. Joshua may have been as big a draw, it's difficult to compare, but Hatton's following was certaintly more passionate. As you noted, Hatton's fanbase basically took over Vegas when he boxed Mayweather. It was a very northern and working class fanbase. I don't think there has been anything anywhere near like it since. He certainly had the common touch. I think it may have been Adam Smith who said something along the lines of that he was the last of the famous sportsman that people could share a pint with down their local. Edited September 14, 2025 by jimufctna24 Quote
Paid Members wandshogun09 Posted September 14, 2025 Paid Members Posted September 14, 2025 Didn’t even think of AJ. He was massively popular before that first Ruiz loss, then gradually it’s seemed to diminish over the years since. Big star and did really help revive the popularity of Boxing over here and the Heavyweight division especially. But like you say, there was something different about Hatton that not many big name sportsmen have. More approachable I guess, not so much a ‘star’ you’d be too awe-struck to go up and speak to, more a normal bloke who just happened to pack arenas for Boxing matches. Can’t imagine what a shock this is to his family, especially his kids. You could see how close he was with Campbell during his brief Boxing career. Really sad. Quote
Members SuperBacon Posted September 14, 2025 Members Posted September 14, 2025 25 minutes ago, wandshogun09 said: Was he the most loved British boxer ever? Oh absolutely. It's hard to imagine just how popular he was back then. He was everywhere, from Soccer AM to the lads mags, to TV shows, and really did break into a mainstream audience. It helped as well that he was a working class lad, who you'd see on the piss with his mates, when not fighting. He had the common touch and its lovely to hear so many nice stories about him. Nothing about him seemed fake. My favourite bout of his was the Tszyu one as I went, but I also loved him beating the shit out of Malignaggi as I bloody hated that twat! Quote
Paid Members wandshogun09 Posted September 14, 2025 Paid Members Posted September 14, 2025 Seeing so many people speculating and jumping straight to the conclusion that Ricky Hatton must’ve committed suicide and that it can’t possibly be due to natural causes. Loads of tribute tweets ending with “men…SPEAK UP” and stuff like that. Of course the mental health message (and not just aimed at men) is always valuable but I think it’s really shitty to just immediately attach that to Hatton’s death. Nobody knows the cause yet. Quote
NeverYield Posted September 14, 2025 Posted September 14, 2025 Yeah at this stage noone truly knows whats what and its about paying respects and tributes to Hatton. Some people can't help but 'make it about themselves' can they, but you are right that message is always valuable and right but you can't say for certain it is that at this stage. Quote
Paid Members wandshogun09 Posted September 14, 2025 Paid Members Posted September 14, 2025 Aw fuck. None of the tributes I’ve seen today got to me quite like this one. Poor sod. Quote
Rossman Posted September 14, 2025 Posted September 14, 2025 Really sad news. For the amount of fights he had, his career wasn't that long. He was practically retired by 31. Most boxers peak at 2 fights a year now at most. When Ricky had the WBU title, he defended it 15 times in 4 years. He was peaking at 5 fights a year in 2001. 30000 Brits were said to have flown over for the Mayweather fight. You're never going to see anything like that again. Quote
jimufctna24 Posted September 15, 2025 Posted September 15, 2025 (edited) During Slack's podcast today he mentioned that almost everyone in Manchester has a story about meeting Hatton, and that they are overwhelmingly positive. From giving homeless people he met a large sums of money to chatting with fans about boxing in the pub. It really does appear that he was a good egg all in all. Edited September 15, 2025 by jimufctna24 Quote
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