RICKY Hatton celebrated his 30th birthday yesterday with a gruelling training session and a defiant declaration he was right to leave Billy Graham and join forces with Floyd Mayweather Snr.
Hatton will return to the scene of his only defeat, which came against Floyd Mayweather jnr at the MGM Grand in Las Vegas, to take on IBF light-welterweight champion Paulie Malignaggi on 22 November. Hatton has enlisted the help of Mayweather Snr as
he seeks to reap the benefits of the American's wealth of world-title experience, which has seen him train the likes of Oscar De La Hoya, Chad Dawson and Joan Guzman.
The move follows Hatton's split with Graham after 11 years. Hatton will now spend two weeks training in Manchester before going to Vegas on 16 October.
"Floyd has come in and given me a new lease of life," said Hatton. "He's slowed me down and given me a more subtle approach. I was up at 6am this morning, Floyd came to my house and I ran five miles around Gee Cross in Hyde with dumb bells in my hands. Floyd was side by side with me all the way – in a Range Rover I might add – saying, 'Come on, jab, jab, step off, one-two!'. It was hard because it's very hilly where I live but because it was new I got a buzz from it. I took him with me to the Manchester City versus Liverpool game yesterday, and I think he enjoyed himself."
Hatton admitted he should have changed trainers sooner, and revealed that only his friendship with Graham prevented him from doing so.
Hatton said: "Billy thought he could continue training me but I had to be man enough to say no because it just wasn't possible. A lot of the lads have left his gym – including our Matthew (Hatton's brother) – because of Billy's injuries. There was only me left and he couldn't even do that in the end. It was the toughest decision of my life to leave Billy but it was the best one. They were putting needles in his hands to numb the pain so he could take a training session. When I hit him he would say, 'You're hitting too hard', but in my mind I was thinking, 'Well you don't know because you can't feel your hands'. He was deluding himself and didn't want to admit to himself that the time had come to finish.
"Everyone was telling me to leave him earlier and I think it's clear because, slowly but surely, everyone else left him. I couldn't do it because of how I had such a close relationship with him, but when Matthew left I knew I had to be a man and leave as well."
Hatton, meanwhile, hopes to beat Malignaggi next month and then take on the winner of the fight between De La Hoya and Filipino legend, Manny Pacquiao, which takes place a fortnight later. He admitted he could even retire next year and a rematch with Mayweather Jnr has not been discounted.
The full article contains 518 words and appears in The Scotsman newspaper.
