Hatton’s defeat only surprised the dreamers.

After his disappointing ninth round stoppage by former champion Vyacheslav Senchenko, Ricky Hatton announced his retirement for a second time, conceding defeat in his quest for another world title run. I am not one to say I told you so….Wait, yes I am, and I did predict this very thing!

Many will not agree with me but let’s be honest, Ricky Hatton was a good, all action, all heart, pressure fighter but was really devoid of any real classy boxing skill. He was a devastating body puncher who did well with the tools he was giving. He will be mentioned among some of British boxing’s greats but he was not a great boxer.

Don’t get me wrong, I am not here to disrespect Hatton or downgrade his achievements. After all that was only his third defeat in 48 fights, with his two previous defeats coming against the top pound for pound fighters in the world Floyd Mayweather and Manny Pacquiao.

The premature talk from the English media, who were already putting Hatton in future British super fights is something I did have a issue with. They Dismissed Senchenko even though Hatton has been out the ring for 3 years following two devastating defeats, albeit against the world’s best fighters.

Any fighter period, who steps in the ring to try and do this for a living should earn our respect, but just like with the English national team, the media tend to get carried away and their patriotic nature makes them lose sight of reality.

As we all knew previously, Hatton never had the most cleanest of livings in between fights, even when he was at his peak. His body had taken immense stress cutting weight for bouts over the years.

If Hatton was a boxer as opposed to a brawler, then some of the talk would have been justified. But Hatton’s style relies on him putting pressure on opponents and wearing them down which he did to good effect at the peak of his career.

Unfortunately into his 30’s, at that stage of his career and after all that has happened previously, it was hard enough to maintain. But to expect to roll back the years after being out for over 3 years was impossible.

This was also the reason why Hatton left his former trainer Billy Graham for Floyd Mayweather Sr, for me these were tell-tell signs of trying to alter his style later on and trying to prolong his career.

Sadly this was to no avail and for me this defeat was inevitable, even though the media didn’t see it. Hopefully he has hanged up his gloves once and for all. He still has a very healthy promotion business to keep him in the game, and although it is not the same it is better than being out of it all together.

Let’s just hope he does not miss it too much as the ironic thing is, the reason for coming back was the manor his devastating knockout by Pacquiao.

Unfortunately, this defeat is even worse in context as it is no shame to be knockout by one boxing’s pound for pound greats as opposed to a former champion who is not a household name. At least with this latest defeat he has no more questions to answer on whether he can still do it in the ring.

No matter what, Hatton will go down as one of British boxing’s greatest fighters along with one of the most popular ever. If he does stay in the game he will definitely be an inspiration to the young, up and coming British boxers.