By William Mackay: After two years out of the ring following a crushing 2nd round knockout loss to Manny Pacquiao way back in 2009, former two division world champion Ricky Hatton (45-2, 32 KO’s) finally hung up his gloves today for good by officially retiring from boxing at the age of 32. It’s kind of anti-climatic, though, because of all the time that Hatton has been inactive since being destroyed by Pacquiao.

Although Hatton is probably good enough to beat some of the top contenders in the light welterweight and welterweight divisions, the chances of him finding major success would be very slim because of all the time away from boxing and the amount of weight that he’s been carrying the past two years. Hatton’s career is a mixed bag. His best win came against and old and weight drained Kostya Tszyu in 2005.

Hatton wrestled his way to a 11th round stoppage in a foul-plagued fight in Hatton’s home city of Manchester. That was Hatton at his prime. Few boxing fans give Hatton any chance against a younger version of Tszyu, because the Russian was an incredible fighter. After the Tszyu fight, Hatton beat some decent fighters like Juan Urango, Luis Collazo (by controversial 12 round decision) and Jose Luis Castillo before running into Floyd Mayweather Jr. and getting stopped in the 10th round in 2007.

Hatton fought Juan Lazcano in his next fight after the Mayweather bout and was badly hurt by a couple of big left hooks by him. The referee stopped the action while Lazcano was attempting to finish Hatton off to allow Hatton to have his shoelaces tied, a move that few boxing fans have ever seen before. It’s unclear whether Hatton would have survived that fight had the referee not stopped the action. In his next fight, Hatton beat weak-punching Paulie Malignaggi by an 11th round TKO in 2008 in a predictable fight. Sadly, that was Hatton’s last win of his career, as he was stopped in the 2nd round in his next fight against Pacquiao in May 2009.

All in all, Hatton was a good fighter for short period of time. He was at his best around 2005, but sadly accomplished little after the Tszyu fight, partly because of his tendency to balloon up in weight between fights. Hatton had the opportunities to fight guys like Amir Khan and Oscar De La Hoya if he had wanted to, but chose not to. It’s too bad. Hatton missed out on a lot of fights that would have been huge and given him a chance to really create a legacy.