Ricky Hatton: Former world champion keeping busy with training and Tenerife trips

What the ex-two-weight champ is up to now

Ricky Hatton still spars in his gym, but a heavy defeat in 2012 put paid to any thoughts of a further comeback (Jon Super)

It was never going to be easy for Ricky Hatton to walk away from boxing, get fat happily and enjoy a normal life without the blood highs of the ring.

He tried a comeback in 2012 and that ended in pain, but it was a necessary step between the glory, the depression, a dangerous period and real retirement. He also tried being a star on the front pages of the papers for the wrong reasons and realised that was no replacement for the boxing.

During the last year he has been at fights in Minsk, with his Kazakh boxer Zhanat Zhakiyanov, and in Australia, with his prospects Cameron Hammond and Damien Hooper. He has also continued to tour the country with his one-man show and recently diverted to Dubai and Bahrain for a stint behind the microphone.

The one-man show is dark at times, funny from start to finish and, having sat next to him at a few dinners, I can vouch that it is hard work; Hatton sweats as the routine unfolds with him throwing punches and revisiting fights from his career.

Hatton recites: “I went back to my corner after one fight, it was against Ben Tackie – he was tough, I couldn’t hurt him – and Billy Graham said to me: ‘He can’t hit you, he’s not hit you.’ I thought: ‘What? Well, if he’s not hitting me, some other f***** is!’”

Ricky Hatton fighting Floyd Mayweather in 2007 (GETTY IMAGES)

It is hard to say when Hatton is at his most relaxed and happy, and that is true of all quality fighters when they try to deal with the first few years away from the boxing ring. Hatton is probably at his most peaceful when he is in Tenerife with his kids, in the shade, a beer at hand and a worn-out episode of Only Fools and Horses on a television somewhere. He is in Tenerife a lot.

His work in the gym and at fights in small halls with the Upton clan – three boxing brothers from Belfast called Sonny, Paul and Anthony – also keeps him busy between Tenerife and after-dinner appearances. Hatton needs to be busy, needs a demanding schedule just like any other retired fighter and in March all three brothers boxed at York Hall, east London. All won their fights.

After the loss in 2012 to Vyacheslav Senchenko there was a genuine feeling that this time the exit was the only way and that this time he would never fight again. “I had some unfinished business, needed some answers and I found them. That’s my lot,” said Hatton. A good beating is not a known cure for depression, but it can certainly make a person focus a little more clearly on the bigger picture.

Since the 2012 loss, Hatton has stayed busy with the fighters in the gym, the jokes on the late-night circuit and a seemingly endless stream of requests to go over his career again and again. The lunacy of his day-to-day life is keeping him sane and that is a great relief.