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manchester Will bid a final farewell to one of his favorite sporting heroes as two-weight world champion ricky hatton The last rites have been performed on Friday.
Hatton, a popular, larger-than-life character who unified the light-welterweight division and also won the world welterweight title, was found dead at his home in Hyde on September 14, aged 46.
A funeral procession will start at 9.45am from the Cheshire Cheese pub – local to Hatton – and travel to Manchester Cathedral, with thousands of people expected to line the streets to reflect on his life and times.
The squad included stops at Hatton’s Boxing Gym and the AO Arena, where he enjoyed some of his best nights, with the undisputed highlight being a victory over the famous Kostya Tszyu to capture his first world title on a raucous night 20 years ago.
Following a private memorial service at noon, the memorial march will proceed Etihad StadiumHome of Hatton’s beloved Manchester City.
The news of Hatton’s death was announced just hours before the Manchester derby at Eastlands, with players and fans of both City and United giving a minute’s applause immediately before kick-off.
It was one of numerous tributes to the ‘Hitman’, including former world heavyweight champion Frank Bruno, Tyson Fury and Anthony Joshua, along with fellow Briton Amir Khan and one-time enemy. Manny Pacquiao and Roberto Duran, Hatton’s hero.
Hatton’s all-action style earned him 45 wins and three losses in 48 contests, but it was his down-to-earth demeanor that endeared him to fellow professionals and fans around the world.
This was evidenced by the thousands of people who followed him. vegasWhere he fought two of the greatest pound-for-pound fighters of his era such as Floyd Mayweather and Pacquiao, leading to UK fans singing ‘There’s only one Ricky Hatton’ and stories of him drinking Sin City Dry in boxing folklore.
Hatton suffered his first professional defeat when he was stopped by Mayweather in 2007, while a second-round knockout by Pacquiao two years later forced him out of top-level boxing.
A botched comeback attempt against Vyacheslav Senchenko in 2012 marked the first public acknowledgment that Hatton was struggling to cope in retirement.
He was a tireless ambassador for mental health charity Aswell as Manchester-based Barnabus, which supports the homeless and vulnerable, and turned his hand to becoming a success coach in an effort to fill the void.
After taking part in a no-scoring exhibition against Mexico’s Marco Antonio Barrera in 2022, Hatton announced in July that he would return to the ring in a professional bout in Dubai in December.
He had resumed training and his family said he was “in a good place” and “excited for the future” before his death, to which Greater Manchester Police said there were no suspicious circumstances.