There is a recurring sentiment in the new documentary about Ricky Hatton, one of the most successful and beloved boxers that Britain has ever produced: It is the feeling that Hatton deserved a ‘happy ending’, but that it eluded him. In fact, one of the most poignant lines is one of the first in Hatton, and it is delivered by the 44-year-old himself: “I was a world champion four times over, but I consider myself a failure. It wasn’t supposed to end this way.”
For a long time, that is how the former super-lightweight and welterweight champion saw himself. Sat in his kitchen, speaking to The Independent over Zoom, Hatton reflects: “When I had to retire, I’d split up with my missus, I’d fallen out with my trainer who’d been my best mate from day one, fell out with my mum and dad, had no boxing. I thought to myself: ‘I worked so hard for all that? Who am I celebrating it with? Who am I sharing it with?’”
