Retiring Hatton ‘happy’ after comeback defeat

MANCHESTER: Ricky Hatton said he felt “happy” in retiring after the former world champion’s comeback bout against Vyacheslav Senchenko ended in a ninth round knockout defeat on Saturday.

A tearful Hatton admitted at a press conference he had painfully discovered he was no longer a force at elite level after sinking to his knees from a left to the kidneys in a non-title welterweight bout at the Manchester Arena.

It was an outcome that became increasingly likely as the fight went on and the 34-year-old Briton was an easy target for his Ukrainian opponent.

Hatton, roared on by a passionate crowd of 20,000 in his home city, kept missing with air-shots whereas former World Boxing Association (WBA) world champion Senchenko hardly missed at all from the seventh round onwards.

This defeat meant former world light-welterweight and welterweight champion Hatton had been counted out in his last two fights, after being knocked out by Filipino ace Manny Pacquiao in May 2009.

But Hatton, for whom this was a third professional career loss, insisted afterwards he was “happy” in not prolonging his comeback any further following an initial ring exile of more than three years.

“I gave it my best and that’s the end of Ricky Hatton,” he said.

“I’ve got no complaints. It’s well documented how bad it got for me and I needed to put a few demons and ghosts to bed. I feel I’d already won before I got in the ring.”

He added: “There was always excuses to find after losing to (Floyd) Mayweather and Pacquiao because they were the best.” — AFP