RICKY Hatton’s former manager Frank Warren has paid tribute to Ricky Hatton, calling him “one of the greatest, most popular British boxers of all time.”
Speaking to Dawn Neesom on GB News, he said: “It’s just tragic and dreadful news. And first thing is my condolences to all of boxing, condolences to his family, to his children, his grandchildren. It’s just awful. It’s just awful.
“Forty-six years of age, he’s still a young man, and I don’t know what the circumstances are of it all, but it’s just such an awful thing to happen. You know, he was a British sporting icon, not just a boxing icon, a sporting icon.
“He was a man of the people. I remember when I signed him when he was 18, and in making his debut, I remember he sold at that time three or five tickets for his first fight, and eventually went off to fight in Vegas and took 30,000 Brits with him to watch him.
“That was his appeal, all the way through his career with me, working with me right up until when he had his, what I thought was his, the pinnacle of his boxing career, when he fought Kostya Tszyu in his hometown, Manchester, where he was a big underdog.
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“He was fighting the then number one pound for pound fighter in the world in Kostya Tszyu, beating everybody, and he won that fight. It was a scintillating performance. It was a brilliant performance. And it was Ricky Hatton.
“What you see, what you get in the ring with him. It was just pure, pure action, non-stop from round one till eventually stopped. So it was just an amazing performance. And that’s how he’s been all throughout his career.
“He’s given everything. A man of the people , loved by the people, never changed at all. What you see is what you got with Ricky. A lovely, lovely bloke.”
He added: “He was accessible. He was a fan’s friend…he was just well loved. He was a really well-loved boxer. The fans adored him. When he retired, he’d come along to shows, if you introduce him into the ring, he got the biggest cheer out of everybody, that was the big shout, ‘there’s only one Ricky Hatton’. And that’s the truth. There was only one Ricky Hatton.”
Asked how Ricky would be remembered, Warren said: “One of the greatest, most popular British boxers of all time, certainly in modern days. Unbelievably loved, gave everything in the ring.
“He was one of the amazing characters outside the ring, but in the ring, where he came a lot, where he did show what he was all about. It was non-stop action, commitment, skills, bravery, everything.”
