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The Guardian - UK
The Guardian - UK
Sport
Donald McRae

‘It’s not normal to walk into the tornado’: To fans, there was only one Ricky Hatton. Those who loved him knew many

Ricky Hatton celebrates defeating Kostya Tszyu in 2005
Ricky Hatton celebrates defeating Kostya Tszyu in their 2005 IBF light welterweight world championship title fight. Photograph: Darren Staples/Reuters

“Of course I remember,” Billy Graham says quietly as he pushes back his straw trilby to show me his wounded expression. “I can remember everything.”

Graham, who trained Ricky Hatton for all but the last three of his 48 fights, used to sit with his fighter on the grimy steps outside their first boxing gym in Salford in the late 1990s. It was a more innocent time and, rather than being called The Preacher and The Hitman, they were just Billy and Ricky then.

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