Real reason Ricky Hatton is returning to ring after 13 years as bizarre Oasis link to his nasty eye injury revealed
PINT in hand, Ricky Hatton rolled with it at Friday night’s Oasis comeback as he plotted his own sensational return.
The Hitman — also a Nineties icon — was due to fly to Dubai at the weekend to announce his first professional bout for 13 years.
Yet, the man who traded blows with some of history’s greatest fighters was floored by a pair of sunglasses that he poked into his own eye.
It will go down as one of boxing’s most bizarre injuries, which saw Hatton being rushed to Manchester Royal Eye Hospital and advised not to fly by medics.
A source close to Hatton, 46, told me: “Ricky’s a massive Oasis fan. A car came to pick him up to go to their Cardiff gig, he’s got his bags, he’s rushing to get into the car and he’s tried to put his sunglasses on, but he’s poked himself in the eye.
“It punctured the protective layer of his pupil exposing the nerves and that’s where the pain comes in.
“He didn’t realise how bad it was until Saturday morning, and was rushed to hospital and given painkillers plus ointment to put on to heal it and also some artificial tears in case his eyes get too dry. He’s on the mend.”
Hatton was forced to make his comeback announcement for his December fight against the “Arabian Warrior” Eisa Al Dah, 46, over Zoom rather than in the desert emirate.
Hatton said of the bout: “It’s been well-documented I’ve had my struggles, but I’m in a really good place now, loving life, trying to bring the next champions through.
“But the opportunity has come for me to get in the ring and do it again.”
Reactions among punters on Ricky’s X post were mixed.
Wild nights
One posted: “Can’t you just go and do I’m A Celebrity or something if you need a few quid pal?”
Another revealed: “I’ll be watching Ricky, you’ve always been one of my favourite fighters.”
So why is the four-time world champion at two weights placing his battered features in the firing line once more?
In truth Hatton — like many old ring legends — has struggled to match the brutal intensity and adrenaline rush of professional boxing after hanging up his gloves in 2012.
At times appearing to lose himself, there were wild nights smashed on cocaine, marathon booze benders and the breakdown of a long-term relationship.
It was a calamitous fall for Ricky, from Hyde, Greater Manchester, who had once been top billing in Las Vegas.
Brought up on a council estate, Ricky left school to work with dad Ray as a £150-a-week carpet fitter before turning pro.
Boxing started off as a habit and it ended up giving me some money and making me a little bit of a better person. But I don’t think I will have a fight again Ricky Hatton in 2010
I was ringside in Las Vegas in December 2007 for the night of Ricky’s life when he faced Floyd Mayweather Jr, considered one of history’s best pound-for-pound fighters.
The fight defined the Mancunian’s career — and his life in retirement.
Ahead of the fight, Mayweather had threatened Hatton by goading him: “I wish I was in prison with you. I’d make you my bitch.”
Quick-witted Ricky told me: “Having another boxer threatening to do that to me is a first.
“But I would like to think I have got a fantastic bum.”
On Ricky’s suggestion, The Sun had flown the England football supporters band out to provide accompaniment to his “Walking in a Hatton Wonderland” theme tune. It riled the Mayweather camp.
At a pre-fight press conference, I conducted the band in a rendition of the tune before being carried outside by the American’s entourage including a 7ft 1in man mountain called Fonz.
At the time, Hatton was box office. Over 6,000 travelling Brits cheered him on at the MGM Grand. Over two million tuned in on pay-per-view.
Sir David Beckham visited him in his dressing room and Sir Tom Jones belted out God Save The Queen before the fight.
Hatton entered the ring to Blue Moon, the signature tune of his beloved Manchester City.
Sporting immortality beckoned. Ringside were the Hollywood glitterati, including Denzel Washington, Bruce Willis, Sylvester Stallone, Wesley Snipes, Will Ferrell, Gwen Stefani and Jude Law.
In the tenth round, Mayweather Jr unleashed a brutal left hook that sent Hatton buckling to the canvas. Ricky got to his feet but his legs were gone.
The ref should have stopped it, but Mayweather was allowed to knock him down once more before it was all over.
I looked over at Hatton’s then girlfriend, college lecturer Jennifer Dooley, who was sitting close to the action.
Before the fight she had told me: “The last thing I say to Rick before a fight is, ‘See you after for a drink’. Then I kiss him and say, ‘I love you’. It’s a very emotional moment.”
Now she was sobbing as Ricky lay prone on the canvas.
A measure of Hatton’s stature in that era was when Angelina Jolie and Brad Pitt consoled him in his dressing room afterwards. It was Ricky’s first loss in 43 professional fights.
The unrelenting physical destruction at the hands of all-time boxing great Mayweather was something Hatton would struggle to emerge from.
However, in November 2008 he was back in Vegas at the MGM Grand to fight Italian-American Paulie Malignaggi.
He asked fellow Mancunians Liam and Noel Gallagher to carry his world title belts into the ring with him.
Hatton recalled: “You could see they were both a bit nervous, obviously they had never walked a fighter out before.
“They asked, ‘What do I do, Rick, what do we do?’. I said, ‘Get in the ring and hold it up and put it in Malignaggi’s face’.
“So Noel got in, then I got in the ring, then Liam got in the ring.
“Liam then came straight past me, straight past Noel, and went straight up to Malignaggi and said something like, ‘What do you think about that you d***head?’, shoving the belt in his face. I thought, ‘That’s not quite what I meant, Liam’.
But then, Liam’s walking around ringside and Malignaggi’s fans are ringside, and Liam’s giving the old Liam Gallagher two fingers to them.
“It was absolute gold. But a couple of Malignaggi’s supporters, who were at ringside, were not people you’d want to mess with.
“They said, ‘We love you Ricky but the rock star needs to be careful, he really needs to be careful because he’s disrespected us’.
“I was thinking, ‘Liam’s going to get us all killed here’.” Ricky won in the eleventh round.
Next up was Filipino Manny “The Pacman” Pacquiao, also judged as one of the greatest to ever pull a glove on.
Back at the MGM Grand in May 2009, the only boxer in history to win 12 world titles in eight different weight divisions, dropped Ricky twice in the first round before knocking him out in the second.
It was another savage beating for a brilliant boxer who had simply met a fighter from a different stratosphere.
‘Fire in my belly’
Ricky’s training methods saw him train relentlessly before fights then put the pounds on with a diet of takeaways and beer afterwards.
Ballooning to 13st, it lead to “Ricky Fatton” jibes.
“It’s unconventional to go out and put loads of weight on and drink beer,” he told me before the Mayweather fight. “But it works for me.”
It was a lifestyle that wouldn’t mean a lengthy career.
In 2010, aged 31, he would say: “Boxing started off as a habit and it ended up giving me some money and making me a little bit of a better person.
“But I don’t think I will have a fight again.
“At the moment I don’t have any fire in the belly for a fight or to get myself to a gym.”
Hatton wisely called time on his professional career with a record of 45 wins and two losses.
More importantly he still had his faculties intact.
Yet, he was plagued by depression over his two ring beatings and tried to self-medicate with booze and cocaine, which left him on the brink of suicide.
In 2010, he checked into The Priory clinic, in Cheshire, after being filmed snorting cocaine during a ten-hour binge in Manchester.
I would nip in for three pints on Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday and Thursday, then come the weekend I would have maybe eight or ten pints of Guinness on a Friday, Saturday and Sunday Ricky Hatton
At the time Ricky said: “I have dabbled with the drug on a few occasions.
“The only time I have ever done it is when I have been so depressed or drunk that it’s a case of, ‘Go on then’.”
Alcohol became a crutch with Ricky adding: “I would nip in for three pints on Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday and Thursday, then come the weekend I would have maybe eight or ten pints of Guinness on a Friday, Saturday and Sunday.”
In November 2012, he sought solace in his beloved boxing ring. A comeback against Ukrainian Vyacheslav Senchenko, who knocked Ricky out in the ninth.
“I made my comeback for reasons other than boxing, to fight my demons,” he explained.
He once again announced his retirement.
In 2016 he split with Jennifer, the mother of his daughters Millie and Fearne, after 11 years together.
His 24-year-old son Campbell, from a previous relationship, is a professional boxer.
Single Ricky is a popular and sought-after public speaker, who has also trained and managed boxers including Tommy Fury.
In 2024, he and old friend Coronation Street star Claire Sweeney appeared on Dancing On Ice together and began dating.
It wasn’t to last with Claire saying: “We’re still friends, we were friends, we dated and now we’re friends again. It’s all good.”
Now the ring is calling once more and ageing Eisa Al Dah is no Mayweather.
Soon the cheers of “Walking in Hatton wonderland” will be ringing through the malls of Dubai, in the second great comeback of the year.
