Manchester Says Goodbye to Ricky Hatton
By Gabriel F. Cordero
Ricky Hatton’s coffin left the Cheshire Cheese pub on Stockport Road in Hyde, following a 10-mile route to Manchester Cathedral where it lay in state and then to the Etihad Stadium for its final journey on Friday. Thousands of fans with red roses watched as the funeral procession made its way through streets including Hyde Gym, The New Inn, Hatton’s Gym, Hyde Town Hall and the AO Arena, among others. Former world champions Barry McGuigan, Frank Bruno, Amir Khan, Tyson Fury, Conor Benn, Tony Bellew, Scott Welch, Frazer Clarke, Nigel Benn, Matthew Macklin, Natasha Jonas, Kell Brook and Anthony Crolla were in attendance; footballer Wayne Rooney; Hatton’s former manager Billy Graham; and a brass band playing Hatton’s song, “Walking in a Hatton Wonderland”, to the tune of “Winter Wonderland”. In a city with the blue of Manchester City and the red of Manchester United soccer teams, this Friday were all Ricky Hatton.
Hatton was born in Stockport in 1978, but it was in the residential neighborhood of Hattersley in Hyde, Greater Manchester, where he spent the best days of his childhood, along with hours hidden away in a small basement gym built by his parents. This led him to boxing, becoming a world super-lightweight and welterweight champion, facing legends such as Kostya Tszyu, Floyd Mayweather Jr., and Manny Pacquiao, among others. He became known as “Hitman” and one of the most popular boxers in England and around the world during a remarkable professional career between 1997 and 2012.
Hatton’s extraordinary victory over Kostya Tszyu in Manchester in 2005 is recognized as one of the greatest triumphs by a British boxer in boxing history.
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