Ricky ‘The Hitman’ Hatton was the pride of Manchester at one point but fell short on some of the biggest nights of his career.
Ricky Hatton retired with a record of 45-3, with wins over Kostya Tszyu, Paulie Malignaggi, and Jose Castillo.
He fell short against legends of the sport in Manny Pacquiao and Floyd Mayweather, and was beaten in his final fight by Vyacheslav Senchenko.
Though he fell short on the occasion, Hatton earned the Mayweather fight after doing what Mayweather couldn’t.
Ricky Hatton produces sickening KO of Floyd Mayweather’s toughest opponent
In 2002 27-0 Mayweather took on 45-4-1 Jose Luis Castillo in a defense of Castillo’s WBC lightweight title.
The fight went the distance, and despite the scorecards, was a close one, with promoter Bob Arum even expressing outrage at the scores according to BoxRec:
“I disagree with the way the scoring went. It’s not that I feel Mayweather didn’t win, but not by this margin. This is ludicrous.”
Castillo said of the fight: “I thought I won. Unfortunately, the judges didn’t agree. Running away, like Mayweather did, is not the way to win a world title.”
Though he lost, Mayweather, whose uncle was KO’d by Oscar De La Hoya, did something he doesn’t often do and granted him a rematch. The rematch ended the same way, in a unanimous decision for Mayweather, who frustrated Hatton with a football shirt years later, though Castillo gave another good account of himself.
Five years later, Castillo found himself in the ring with the Mancunian ‘Hit-Man’, who earned his shot at the crown after crippling Castillo with a fourth-round body-shot knockout.
The man Mayweather went 24 rounds with was sent to the canvas by Hatton in just four.
Ricky Hatton returned to the ring 10 years after retirement to face Marco Antonio Barrera
In 2022, Hatton, who had faced depression and poor lifestyle decisions, made the announcement he would return to the ring against Marco Antonio Barrera, who beat Prince Naseem, in an exhibition bout in Manchester.
There was no declared winner or loser, but Hatton expressed delight with how the event turned out:
“I wondered how it was going to go, me and Marco are friends, but with such a big crowd getting behind me I wondered if it would get a bit heated. But it was good, entertaining, I think everything we wanted.”