Wow, this is truly very sad and shocking news. He was only 46 ffs. I knew he had, had some problems with mental health issues over the years along with alcohol and coke, but I thought he'd pretty much got on top of things. A very, very sad day for sure. RIP Mr Hatton.
And his outward character was one of being very grounded, uncomplicated, and down to earth, the kid next door. But he obviously had his demons. We'll find out soon enough the actual cause of his death.
RIP Ricky Hatton! So sad to hear, he had some great wins during a fabulous exciting career but I think the two losses at the end of his career to Mayweather and Pac-Man he never got over leading in some part to his problems. When Ricky fought Britain came to a standstill,if the fans could not travel with him then they still filled out venues across the Country and watched him that way,not many British fighters appealed to the fans as much as Ricky did,truly a sad loss . Only one Ricky Hatton
Man someone at work yesterday said "once on a blue moon" and I broke into the Man City/Hatton version of Blue Moon and I think my coworker thought I was crazy. His fan base made me think he could beat Superman, and on his best night he probably could. RIP Champ.
One of the great characters we have had in boxing. Fantastic career as well and so entertaining. RIP Ricky, you'll be remembered fondly.
Really sad news, hearing this. I was lucky enough to have quite a bit to do with Ricky for a good few years as I had Lucas Browne and a couple of other boxers sign with his promotional company. He was always super friendly and fun to be around. I was a fan of his before meeting him, as he was always in exciting scraps and seemed like one of those "man of the people" type characters. I watched Pacquaio v Marquez IV with him in Hong Kong. Browne was due to fight a few days later on a Hatton Promotions card. We had this private box type thing in this massive sports bar and free drinks left, right and centre. Ricky would've taken a picture with every single person in that ****ing place by the end of the day. I actually asked to him on the quiet, don't you get sick of getting asked for pictures all day? He replied words to the effect of, no not at all. These people supported my career, maybe buy tickets to my next promotion and taking 30 seconds to get a photo with them isn't too big of a deal. He was how you want every athlete to be with fans. One of us basically. That day's session turned into an all nighter and one by one people started heading to their beds. His manager placed me in charge of getting him home in one piece. It was the blind leading the blind there. Somehow I... or we... managed to stumble in just before the sun came up. He had a Q and A at a local gym with some pretty high flying businessmen and local media that he managed to navigate on about two hours sleep. Over the years we got to know each other pretty well. He visited our house here in Australia when he was over attempting to get a foothold in the Aussie boxing market. Again, just a pleasure to be around and he was besotted with my little daughter. Managed to sneak him down to the Surf Club and get a pic of him drinking XXXX. When in Rome and all that. RIP Ricky, you'll be missed.