Twenty years on, Ricky Hatton reflects on his signature victory

Independent

06-06-2025

This week has marked twenty years since Kostya Tszyu and Ricky Hatton met for what was universally considered to be the light-welterweight championship of the world.
The odds were against Hatton, 38-0 (29), even at home in the cauldron of the MEN Arena. The 'Hitman' had so far had a career without too many big names, and the assumption was that as Frank Warren's cash cow, the promoter was wisely managing his charge through sell-out fights that carried little-to-no risk.
Before Tszyu, Hatton been defending his barely regarded World Boxing Union (WBU) title for four years. The run of opponents in that time had been uninspiring - Tony Pep, Jason Rowland, John Bailey – and the few recognisable names, such as Freddie Pendleton, came in with deeply flawed records (Pendleton was 47-25-5 when he faced Hatton in 2001).
There had been struggles, too. Eamonn Magee had knocked down Hatton in the first round in 2002, before the pair went the twelve-round distance. Stephen Smith later that year found himself disqualified when his father pushed referee Mickey Vann after a Hatton elbow cut his son.
And then Frank Warren made the Tszyu fight.
Tszyu, 31-1 (25) at the time, had the most-feared right hand in boxing. His last fight, seven months before, had seen him deploy it to demolish Sharmba Mitchell in three rounds, knocking his opponent down four times. Tszyu had gone through Jesse James Leija, too, in 2003 and Ben Tackie in 2002.
It was an era before the idea of 'going viral' had come into existence, but it seemed somehow that everyone knew that moment, in stopping Zab Judah in two rounds in 2001, that Tszyu had caused his opponent to do a dance like a man learning how to ice skate in the middle of an earthquake.
Now, Tszyu was coming to Manchester. Even the Boxing News at the time predicted that the Australian-based Russian would eventually walk down and stop Hatton, probably in the eighth round.
In 2025, Hatton reflected on the morning of the fight. As per his habit, he went to a local café in Hyde.
'I went in,' he said, 'and they had all of the newspapers there, the Daily Mirror, the Daily Mail and The Sun. I picked them up as I'm having my breakfast and I think The Sun had me to get beaten inside two rounds, the Mirror had me not going past six rounds and that it would be over in three rounds by the Daily Mail.'
It is hard to describe now, but the atmosphere was something different when Hatton used to fight at the MEN Arena. The sound of the crowd was a character in itself, an aural waterfall that seemed to come down from the rafters of the builders and then explode, spreading along the floor and through the arena.
Hatton came out that night to 'Blue Moon' as he always did. He looked nervous on his walk to the ring.
Tszyu came second, his friend Russell Crowe – just a few months before the release of Cinderella Man – was ringside. He may have been the only friend Tszyu had in the building.
The crowd saw Tszyu, and there was little respect for him. Not like years later, when Marco Antonio Barrera did the same walk to face Amir Khan and people understood then – like they did not with Tszyu – that they were in the presence of greatness.
Hatton found something deeper within himself that night, a disregard for everything bad that could happen, a willingness to gamble on something larger than a fight, and he pushed and punched and rough-housed Tszyu.
Eventually, the pair went back to their corners at the end of the tenth round. It was hard to see at the time, but it is there when you look at it with fresh eyes. There is a momentary shake of the head from Tszyu in his corner, moments before it cuts to a replay of the round before, where he elects to stay on his stool.
The fight is over.
If Hatton peaked that night in Manchester, there were still big nights to follow, even if nothing ever lived up to it. Hatton split with Frank Warren, which meant he had to go to Sheffield to face Carlos Maussa five months later. He went to the US after that to face Luis Collazo and Juan Urango in decisions before stopping the ghost of Jose Luis Castillo in four.
It was after that that Floyd Mayweather knocked Hatton out, stopping him in ten in what had been a bad night from the start.
There was a bit of a comeback after that, beginning with beating Juan Lazcano in front of 55,000 people at the City of Manchester Stadium. Then there was Paulie Malignaggi, a stoppage in eleven rounds in Las Vegas, before Manny Pacquiao starched Hatton in two. And then three years later, there was the fight against Vyachelsav Senchenko that ended with the Hitman, the body puncher extraordinaire, on the floor from a blow to the ribs.
Tszyu, meanwhile, retired on his stool, and then took that retirement with him from the ring. He never fought again.
Eventually, he moved back to Russia from Australia from where he watched his son Tim begin a career.
Hatton, too, has a son who became a professional boxer.
Time moves on but in 2025, Hatton still remembers achieving the dream, probably more vividly than anything else in his career.
'I must have left the party at about 7am,' he said this week, 'and when I left, the sunshine was out, you could hear the birds tweeting and people were still singing 'there's only one Ricky Hatton' walking up Deansgate. For my dream win, if I could have written down on a piece of paper as to how I would've wanted it to happen, it couldn't have happened as good as it did.'
All of the elements, he says, stacked up.
'My home time in Manchester,' he said, 'a packed arena with nobody expecting me to win and if I did win, it would be one of the best wins in a British boxing ring. And for it to be against a formidable punching machine like he was and to make him quit on his stool, was unbelievable.'
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