When Ricky Hatton returns to the ring for his exhibition with Marco Antonio Barrera, just 10 years after the night he fought as a professional for the 48th and last time, he will fight to honor the memory of the cousin who committed suicide as he battled depression.
Hatton’s comeback against Vyacheslav Senchenko in November 2012 was due in large part to demons that had left him suicidal and helped stop his deteriorating mental health. Although he was arrested that night at the Manchester Arena, Hatton brought to a close one of the greatest careers in British boxing, and he hopes that the progress he continues to make can help others avoid the tragic fate of his cousin Stephen Nightingale. .
Hatton last fought in 2012 when Senchenko stopped him, now almost ten years later, he is fighting again, but this time for different reasons.
He was one of Britain’s most popular boxers and a two-weight world champion, after beating Kostya Tszyu in 2005 and later sharing the ring with Floyd Mayweather and Manny Pacquiao.
Wherever he traveled he was always well supported
“I lost my cousin to mental health issues – he hanged himself [aged 35], due to Covid,” Hatton told talkSPORT. “It was very upsetting.
“When the offer [to fight Mexico’s Barrera in an exhibition] Come, it’s been a difficult time for people with mental health issues. [issues] – mental health came to the fore, and we’ve had the blocks, and this and that.
“People know the position I was in and how I suffered with it, so if I can put on a show with Marco as expectedI think it will inspire people. It will not only have been good for my well-being, but also for the well-being of many other people.
“[The exhibition] they offered me when covid was still bad, and mental health – I suffer from my mental health – [was being tested].
“Tell people: ‘We’ve been to Covid; we have all been locked up; we have not been able to do this; we have lost family due to Covid; we have lost friends to Covid; we’ve lost friends to mental health’… What a way to tell people, ‘Remember the state Ricky was in a few years ago; he looks at what you can do when you put your mind to it, to change things.’ That was another incentive.”
Against Ukraine’s Senchenko, Hatton was 34 years old and returning from three and a half years of inactivity since May 2009 in Las Vegas, where the great Manny Pacquiao stopped him so destructively in two rounds.
Pacquiao stopped Hatton in two rounds and found it difficult to cope with the end of his career
Despite establishing himself among the greatest of all super lightweights and becoming perhaps the most popular fighter in British history, he found the nature of that defeat and the end of his career so difficult to deal with that he spiraled into a harmful cycle of alcoholism and depression, and experimented with cocaine.
Hatton and those closest to him recognize that the trigger for his depression came when he suffered his first defeat, against Floyd Mayweather in December 2007but the acrimonious separation from his long-term trainer Billy Graham, the loss to Pacquiao and then the breakup of his relationship with his parents further damaged his fragile state of mind.
Before announcing his return, in September 2012, Hatton’s weight had risen to 15th and he had also visited The Priory and Sporting Chance. His comeback was born out of convincing himself that he required ‘redemption’ for the life he had lived since he lost to Pacquiao, and finally giving him a sense of overdue peace.
“I’m under no illusions, my best days are behind me,” Hatton continued. “Their [almost] ten years a day. That is incredible.
Hatton has ‘changed a load of wood’ while showing off a slimmed down figure
“One, to hear the roar of the crowd, [two] share the arena with Marco Antonio Barrera, [and three] in this period of mental health and Covid, where everyone has been down, if it inspires some people with weight problems [laughs] – I’ve moved a load of lumber.
“I have my mental health issues, and I’ve gotten back into shape and form, and fighting in the arena. If a person says, ‘My God, look at the state Ricky was in a few years ago and look at him now,’ it will have been forever.”
At his lowest point, before his return, his then-partner, Jennifer, found Hatton sobbing in a dark room with a knife to his wrist. Even in the build-up to his fight with Senchenko, he showed a significantly more brooding and introspective figure than the animated one he proved so entertaining during the considerable access granted before fighting Mayweather and Pacquiao.
He had first attempted to continue fighting in 2010, but having returned to the gym and yet to hit his lowest point, he found that he lacked the drive he needed. Later that year he went to rehab to try to recover from ‘severe depression’ and a ‘drinking problem’, which contributed to the British Boxing Board of Control revoking his boxing license.
Fury returned to boxing after losing a massive amount of weight in 2018 and made sure to keep in touch with Hatton.
The Gypsy King, who has suffered from mental health issues, fought his way back to the top and is now the WBC champion.
And now Hatton has been trimmed down significantly ahead of his return to the ring.
“I felt like I was leaving my family, my fans, and everyone,” he remembers. “I needed to come back, not continue and fight after fight after fight after fight. I needed to come back to redeem myself and prove myself, and assure everyone, ‘I’m in a good place, and no matter how bad things get, see what you can do if you put your mind to it.'”
When Hatton’s friend Fury Tyson – an equally positive figure in the growing recognition of those struggling with their mental health – launched his own comeback in 2018 after battling obesity, alcohol and cocaine abuse, bipolar disorder and suicidal thoughts, there were times he used the Hatton’s gym. Hatton even became an influential figure in his training team with Ben Davison until the end of 2019, Fury replacing Davison with SugarHill Steward of the Kronk.
“I put one thing on my Instagram, ‘I’m not having my best day, but we’ve got to move on,’” Hatton said, speaking in 2020. “Do you know who called me? Fury Tyson. Within 10 minutes.
“He said, ‘Hey Rick, what’s up with you? Are you okay?’
“That’s the man, Tyson. Just to make sure he was okay.”
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