Ricky Hatton, one of England’s best boxers ever, has retired for the second time after losing a bout to Vyacheslav Senchenko of the Ukraine in Manchester, England on Nov. 24.
Hatton was taking on the former WBA Welterweight titleholder in his first fight in over three years, but was knocked out in the ninth round by a brutal left hook to the body. Hatton had retired once before in 2009 after being stopped in the second round by former champion Manny Pacquiao.
The 34-year-old ex junior-welterweight and welterweight champion announced after the loss to Senchenko (33-1, 22 Kos) that he was going to retire for good from boxing, but will still be involved in the sport with his promotion business. He said he wanted to see if he still had the skills to compete with the world’s best boxers, and after the loss, he realized that he doesn’t have what it takes anymore.
Hatton’s career record stands at 45-3 with 32 knockouts. His only losses came to current or former world champions Pacquiao, Senchenko and Floyd Mayweather. He was knocked out in all three losses.
While Mayweather and Pacquiao stopped Hatton with wicked hooks to the head, the 35-yar-old Senchenko managed to do it with a perfect body shot that paralyzed the Briton.
It came in the ninth round in a fight Hatton was closely leading on all three scorecards. He just couldn’t get to his feet before the 10 count despite the crowd urging him to get up. The referee halted the bout at the 2:52 mark of the penultimate round of the scheduled 10-round bout.
Hatton started the fight well enough. He had some ring rust to battle, but had built up a decent lead by the sixth round. However, he seemed to lose steam once the seventh started and was visibly tiring. Still, he was ahead by one point on two of the judges’ card and up by four points on another going into the ninth round.
After Hatton retired in 2009, he was plagued by drug and alcohol problems and also had a falling out with his family. He battled bouts of deep depression and admitted that he thought of killing himself several times.
He said his body has been through a lot over the years since he’s burned the candle at both ends and he tried the best he could in his comeback bout. He said he wanted to take on a top contender in his return to the ring as a win over a mediocre opponent wouldn’t have proved anything to him and his fans.
Even though he was knocked out in front of about 20,000 screaming fans at the Manchester Arena, he said he was a happy man since the bout answered his own questions and doubts about himself. He added that he did everything he could have possibly done to beat Senchenko, but he has to face up to the fact that it’s time to hang up his boxing gloves for good this time.
Understandably, he was emotional after the fight, and while it first appeared that he might continue with his career, he said he will now stick to promoting fights and will spend more time with his young family.
