MANCHESTER, England — Ricky Hatton hastily retired again Saturday night following a knockout loss to Vyacheslav Senchenko in the British star’s first fight in more than three years.
MANCHESTER, England — Ricky Hatton hastily retired again Saturday night following a knockout loss to Vyacheslav Senchenko in the British star’s first fight in more than three years.
“I needed one more fight to see if I had still got it, and I haven’t,” said the 34-year-old Hatton, the former light-welterweight champion who dropped to 45-3.
The Briton succumbed to a painful body shot in the ninth round from the Ukrainian welterweight Senchenko in the nontitle fight in his hometown.
“A fighter knows, and I know it isn’t there anymore,” Hatton said. “It’s too many hard fights, I’ve burned the candle at both ends, I’ve put my body through the mire in and out of the ring but it doesn’t matter how hard I train, I couldn’t have done any better.”
Hatton fought again 3 1/2 years after being knocked out by Manny Pacquiao, a loss that sent the former two-weight champion into retirement and his life spiraling out control, with depression, personal problems and battles with drink and drugs.
“I’m a happy man tonight,” Hatton said. “I don’t feel like putting a knife to my wrists. I have got the answers I needed. I got the opportunity and I got the answers and no matter how upsetting it is, I have got to be a man and say, ‘It is the end of Ricky Hatton.’”
An emotional Hatton said he would devote his future to his family and his promotional activities.