{"id":489370,"date":"2025-10-10T21:53:24","date_gmt":"2025-10-10T21:53:24","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/489370\/"},"modified":"2025-10-10T21:53:24","modified_gmt":"2025-10-10T21:53:24","slug":"liam-gallaghers-touching-final-gesture-as-he-says-goodbye-to-ricky-hatton","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/489370\/","title":{"rendered":"Liam Gallagher’s touching final gesture as he says goodbye to Ricky Hatton"},"content":{"rendered":"

Ricky was a huge Oasis fan and friend of the Gallagher brothers\"LiamLiam Gallagher attends the funeral of Ricky Hatton at Manchester Cathedral(Image: 2025 Getty Images)<\/p>\n

Hundreds of fans, as well as celebrities from across the sporting world and beyond, gathered in parts of Manchester today<\/a> to bid a final farewell to one of Manchester’s greatest. Stars that showed up to pay tribute at Manchester Cathedral included Liam Gallagher, Coleen Rooney, Claire Sweeney and Paddy McGuinness, alongside a number of boxers.<\/p>\n

The private memorial service began at midday <\/a>after Ricky’s funeral cortege arrived, which was led by the famous Reliant van from Only Fools And Horses. The former boxing world champion was a big fan of the classic British sitcom and once bought one of the original three-wheelers for \u00a34,000, which he used to drive round his home city.<\/p>\n

As the funeral service ended, the light-blue Manchester City-coloured coffin was carried out as it began its final journey to the home of City, the Etihad. As the coffin was placed in the back of the funeral car, Oasis frontman Liam Gallagher and his wife Debbie patted it as they walked past<\/a>, with the Britpop icon blowing a goodbye kiss to his friend Ricky.<\/p>\n

Dressed all in black, he attended with his partner Debbie Gwyther and family as well as Stone Roses legend Mani. In a moving moment during the funeral service, the Oasis classic Live Forever was played out.<\/p>\n

Liam took to social media after Ricky’s death to pay tribute. He wrote: “Absolutely devastated to hear the news about RICKY HATTON it was an absolute honour to know him and carry his belts RIP CHAMP LIVE FOREVER LG x”<\/p>\n

In what was their first UK gig since the death of the boxer, the band paid their respects, with a huge image of Ricky flashed up on the screen during their iconic track Live Forever.<\/p>\n

\"LiamLiam Gallagher attends the funeral of Ricky Hatton at Manchester Cathedral(Image: 2025 Getty Images)<\/p>\n

Ricky was a huge Oasis fan and friend of the Gallagher brothers, who famously carried his belts into the ring before his win over Pauli Malignaggi at the MGM Grand in Las Vegas in 2008.<\/p>\n

The service was played to the crowds outside the cathedral<\/a> and Ricky\u2019s son Campbell, who followed his dad into the boxing ring, paid an emotional tribute, saying: \u201cI can\u2019t explain how much I\u2019m going to miss you, dad, and that we won\u2019t be making any new memories \u2013 but the ones we did I will cherish forever.\u201d<\/p>\n

Mum Carol, said in a statement read on her behalf: \u201cThe Hitman was adored by his army of fans \u2013 the People\u2019s Champion, and he would say that\u2019s how he would want to be remembered. Long before this accolade, he was our little champion from the day he was born.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"TheThe coffin of Ricky Hatton is carried out of Manchester Cathedral(Image: PA)<\/p>\n

Following a private memorial service, the procession made its way from the cathedral to the Etihad Stadium, home of Ricky\u2019s beloved Manchester City.<\/p>\n

Fans gathered outside the Etihad Stadium <\/a>and sang Manchester City’s anthem, Blue Moon. People also broke out into a rendition of “There’s only one Ricky Hatton” to the tune of Winter Wonderland.<\/p>\n

Hatton won the IBF world welterweight title in his home city in June 2005 with victory over Kostya Tszyu. He went on to fight Floyd Mayweather and Manny Pacquiao in the United States.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Ricky was a huge Oasis fan and friend of the Gallagher brothersLiam Gallagher attends the funeral of Ricky…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":489371,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3940],"tags":[4080,17302,77,94891,16,15,14349],"class_list":{"0":"post-489370","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-celebrities","8":"tag-celebrities","9":"tag-coleen-rooney","10":"tag-entertainment","11":"tag-ricky-hatton","12":"tag-uk","13":"tag-united-kingdom","14":"tag-wayne-rooney"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@uk\/115352097266732068","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/489370","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=489370"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/489370\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/489371"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=489370"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=489370"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=489370"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}