Ricky Hatton remembered: Matthew Macklin on the epic Floyd Mayweather and Kostya Tszyu fights | Boxing News

World title challenger and Sky Sports’ pundit Matthew Macklin was part of Ricky Hatton’s camp. He shares his memories of the journey…

A phenomenal, phenomenal fighter, great guy as well. I’m sad and shocked and my heart goes out to his family. I can only imagine how they feel.

It was well documented that he lived life to the fullest but he trained as hard as anyone I’ve been in the gym with. A true professional when he was in training. Dieting, everything… he did everything to perfection.

He had a great boxing brain I think, a very underrated skillset. Everyone knew he was a fearsome body puncher, very strong, but he was a fantastic boxer when he needed to be as well.

There were fights he won when probably he could have pulled out, he was ill. I remember the Juan Urango fight, he probably should have pulled out really. It was a world title fight, it was his Las Vegas debut, a lot of pressure on, and he went through with it.

Even the Manny Pacquiao fight: in hindsight he probably should have pulled out of that fight, training didn’t go well. But he didn’t. He soldiered through it. He walked the walk in every sense of the word.

A great fighter to be around as well, the way he handled the pressure, the way he handled all the media obligations.

He really was a character as well. So funny, a prankster in the gym. Boxing’s a tough game and a lonely game but when you’ve got characters like Ricky in the gym with you, sharing the laughs and sharing the journey, it makes every day a joy, really, as opposed to a hardship.

Kostya Tszyu… that was one of the special nights in British boxing history. Certainly in my time, it was the night.

It was late at night because it had to suit US primetime television, the MEN packed out in Manchester, Kostya Tszyu an all time great already who’d cemented his legacy.

Not many people gave Ricky Hatton a chance in that fight. Even the people that knew Ricky was the real deal and believed in him and thought he was world class, I don’t believe they thought he was quite good enough to beat a legend, an all-time great like Kostya Tszyu.

But it was his night, he wasn’t going to be denied and he made it a war of attrition. He jumped on Kostya Tszyu. He didn’t give him the room or the time. He dragged him into Ricky Hatton’s fight, close quarters and tenacious. It was ferocious, it was gruelling and ultimately he wanted it more.

It was his time and he had 20,000-odd fans inside that arena willing him on with every single punch. At that time I was very close with Ricky, we trained together, I was part of his team and from my point of view as a young fighter coming through, just to absorb that experience and learn from it, it was unbelievable.

For the Floyd Mayweather fight in Las Vegas, it was chaos, in a good way. I remember some of the blackjack dealers, they said they’d been there 30, 40 years and they’d never seen anything like it. They couldn’t believe it, the support, the noise, it was unreal.

He came up short against Mayweather but he pushed Mayweather. That was probably one of Mayweather’s best performances. Ricky brought the best out of Mayweather with his aggression and what he brought to the fight. And that was prime Mayweather.

He had a connection to his fans, maybe more so than anyone before or since. He really embraced it all. He never forgot his roots, he was very much a man of the people.

And it isn’t easy when you’re that famous and everyone wants a piece of you. But he always tried to make sure he never forgot himself, he always made time for people. I think he genuinely enjoyed it. He genuinely was grateful and never forgot that.