Hatton - Documentary

[ShorehamCitizen]

Will have to track this down. Met Ricky at Wetherspoons in the Printworks, nice guy also.

 

[Corky]

Easy to forget how iconic Tyson was back then. When word got out he was at The Midland, there were thousands outside within an hour. Most of them non boxing fans. Just ordinary people who wanted to have a glimpse of him in real life.

Hard to think of many people from any field who could generate that amount of interest from the general public.

There was a lot of Legend still surrounding, it would have been similar if Elvis came over in the early 70s. It was a quick turnaround with tickets on sale the month before.

Apart from Calzaghe, Gomez, Farnell and Hatton the only other 'name' I remember was Takaloo. There were a couple of other four rounders well before the TV camera's were rolling.

Everything had sold out by about 9pm, merch, beer, fruit pastels, twix the lot. A few scraps on the way out on the steps near the deansgate side.

 

[dublinblue12]

Is this on Now TV? Might sign up on a trial

 

[paulchapo]

Half way through. Very good watch so far. Shame that money seemed to change things after the Tszyu fight. What a great boxer he was though. All heart. Real man of the people and a City fan to boot. Saw him at Chelsea away a few years back and the concourse was rocking with the Ricky Hatton song. Did anyone see him in Istanbul ? Saw the pics of him there.

Mayweather was just a step too far and even then, watching that fight, the ref stepped in way too often to separate them. Still rocked him in the first with that jab.

Yes the ref wouldn't let him work inside which is where his best work was done, constantly breaking them up. I was at the MEN when he won the world title, a great night.

 

[Nellies left peg]

What I couldn’t understand is when Billy Graham was struggling on the pads why not get someone else in to do the donkey work and supervise the work outs. I suspect Ricky’s dad thought he wasn’t up to it and wanted him out. A great relationship ruined as Billy was more like a dad to him and knew him inside out and I suspect that Manny debacle would not have happened

 

[Stephen Ireland's pants]

A really good watch, especially the atmosphere in Vegas for the Floyd Mayweather fight.
5 Nights in the MGM will live long in my memory.

An old fella in the MGM said to me he had never heard anything like it in his 30 years in Vegas.

 

[mcrpogue]

Surprised neither Campbell or Matthew were in it, but they are better off out of it. Cant see that airing your family's dirty laundry in public is a good move. The boxing game is full of shysters but you dont expect them in your family.

 

[Stephen Ireland's pants]

There was a lot of Legend still surrounding, it would have been similar if Elvis came over in the early 70s. It was a quick turnaround with tickets on sale the month before.

Apart from Calzaghe, Gomez, Farnell and Hatton the only other 'name' I remember was Takaloo. There were a couple of other four rounders well before the TV camera's were rolling.

Everything had sold out by about 9pm, merch, beer, fruit pastels, twix the lot. A few scraps on the way out on the steps near the deansgate side.

Calzaghe vs Jeff lacey in Manchester is in the top 3 fights I've ever watched. Shame Johnny Nelson had to pull out of his fight on the under card .

 

[I'm Blue]

Spot on about his dad. I find it astonishing that his dad was batting it all away like it was something trivial and coming up with some barely believable excuse for it. The fact that Billy won the case and got a 7 figure sum out of it shows that it was anything but trivial. His dad ripped both Billy and Ricky off and destroyed their relationship into the bargain. Who needs enemies when you've got cunts like that in your life? Seriously, his dad is lucky that Ricky is even on speaking terms with him these days. I really wanted the documentary to end with Ricky meeting up with Billy but maybe that will happen in the future.

Ricky was clearly in a dark place a lot of the time. I think the drinking was pretty much par for the course as going on the lash with his mates has always been a big thing for him. But when you add in the drugs as well it becomes a different problem altogether. The trouble is, when you become rich and famous those things suddenly become more accessible. I dread to think how I would've got on if I suddenly had too much time and money on my hands.

As for the boxing, I was at the Tszyu fight and it was an incredible night. I couldn't see Hatton pulling it off beforehand but he put in a superhuman performance against a fantastic fighter. Remember that this is the boxer who had Zab Judah doing the chicken dance, yet Hatton forced him to quit on his stool.

After that, I don't think he ever quite hit those heights again. His first fight after Tszyu was against Carlos Maussa who had somehow won a world title against Vivian Harris a few months previous and was so far away from Tszyu's level it was laughable, but Ricky made much harder work of that one than he should've done before finally knocking him out in the 9th. There then followed a couple of unconvincing wins against Collazo and Urango (although he stepped up a weight for that first one) before he turned in a vintage Hatton performance when knocking Castillo out with that textbook body punch of his. To be fair to him, the Mayweather defeat was no disgrace and he did get some change early on. On another day with a different ref it might just have ended differently but Mayweather is sheer quality and seemed to have a knack of solving puzzles presented to him as fights went on. The less said about the Pacquiao bout the better but I'm sure a peak Hatton would've made a much better fight of it.

Overall he had a stellar career IMO and unlike the bullshit we see from many boxers when avoiding opponents, Hatton never shied away from fighting the big names. It was clear that Frank Warren didn't want him fighting Tszyu when he did, despite him being nearly 40 fights into his career. It was only because Ricky put his foot down that the fight happened.

Great post Blue

 

[Didsbury Dave]

Brilliant documentary and a good example of how money can ruin people. I didn’t like his dad either . Apart from creaming off money, I thought it was pretty despicable for him to be shouting and bawling and blaming the trainer straight after his son’s devastating loss. And his ex Mrs was lovely and intelligent. Sounds like Ricky blew it with her.