By William Mackay: 32-year-old Ricky Hatton (45-2, 32 KO’s) has finally come out and admitted what pretty everyone already knows by saying he’s retired from boxing after having been out of the ring for the past two years since his 2nd round Humiliating 2nd round knockout loss to Manny Pacquiao in 2009. Hatton has ballooned up in weight since that loss and even though he’s taken some of the tonnage off, he’s still quite fat and doesn’t look like an athlete any longer. With the kind of weight that he’s put on it’s hard to see Hatton ever fighting again successfully even if he wanted to. Hatton has been busy since his loss to Pacquiao working as a promoter.

In an article at thesun.co.uk, Hatton said “I wake up every morning and still miss it. But the one good thing I do have is something between my ears despite all the hard fights…I haven’t coped well with retiring, but you have to hit rock bottom before you get back into gear…It breaks my heart to think that I won’t fight again, but at least I’m man enough to admit it now.”

Hatton made a huge amount of money in getting destroyed by Pacquiao, and like a lot of fighters after they strike it rich, it seems to have taken away his drive for the sport. Hopefully, Hatton doesn’t blow it all in the next few years and be forced to trim off the blubber and come back to the sport. It would be sad to see Hatton trying to make a go of it in his mid to late 30s, because he looked like a shot fighter at the time that he fought Pacquiao. I can only imagine how deteriorated Hatton will be if he tries to come back in three to five years.

The high point of Hatton’s career was a win over a shot 36-year-old Kostya Tszyu in a fight that took place in Manchester, England. Despite Tszyu being shot and old, Hatton went life and death with him. You can only imagine what a young Tszyu would have done with Hatton.