Ricky Hatton has fought legends like Floyd Mayweather and Manny Pacquiao, but neither gave him his toughest night’s work.
The Manchester man is a British boxing hero who famously took huge travelling support to Las Vegas for his fights against those two fellow Hall of Famers, both of whom knocked him out.
However, speaking to Jim White and Simon Jordan on talkSPORT, Hatton admitted that in fact his hardest night’s work was a 12-rounder with Luis Collazo for the WBA Welterweight title in May 2006.
“That was my toughest fight. I mean, getting beat by Pacquiao like I did was very tough to come to terms with and Floyd Mayweather was just technically so good. From a physical point of view, [Collazo was tougher]. I never made fights easy for myself. I was always going to have it out with someone.”
At 5ft 6in, Hatton was not a big super lightweight, so moving up a division put him at even more of a disadvantage, which is why his coach, Billy Graham, told him not to do it.
“But I wanted to do what my heroes had done. I wanted to try to become a world champion in two weight divisions.”
Hatton scored a knockdown in the first 10 seconds but Collazo rose and fought hard to take it to the cards.
“I think it was only the knockdown that won it. The people that I could bully at 10 stone, when I got close, I could push them, shove them all. I couldn’t do it at 10st 7lbs. I hit him, and the shots just bounced off him. I went to shove him back and he didn’t move. I thought, ‘Oh this is going to be a long night.’
“It was the worst after I’ve felt. I had hot sweats, shaky, shivering and I couldn’t even go to the afterparty I was in such a bad way. Every time he hit me – Floyd Mayweather wasn’t a big puncher, he was technically unreal – but [Collazo] was a big punching southpaw, and every time he hit me, oh my lord!”
Hatton retired in 2012 but is back in December against fellow 46-year-old Eisa Al Dah in Dubai.