Hatton: Pacquiao defeat ‘still very much fresh’

Britain’s Ricky “the Hitman” Hatton has his hands full these days as a boxing promoter, businessman, and entertainer. His preoccupations, however, do not involve going back to the ring at the moment.

“There's lots of things keeping me busy and I'm just sitting back and relaxing,” Hatton told Nick Westby of YorkshirePost.co.uk.

“At the minute, I don't feel like fighting again but after I've had a little break and an unwind, a couple of holidays, then who knows, I could probably change my mind,” he said.

Hatton recently opened a health and fitness center in Manchester. He hopes his center could become a chain. He is currently on a theatre tour for his show, “An Evening with Ricky Hatton.”

He has also been promoting fights, although he disclosed, “It's still quite hard for me to be around boxing at the minute, even just promoting shows.”

“The Hitman” related, “I did a show in Portsmouth recently where there was one lad who got knocked out and it sent a shiver down my spine.”

"The Pacquiao defeat is still very much fresh in my mind,” Hatton remarked. “But time is a great healer and maybe further down the line, I'll decide to jump in the ring again.”

"At the minute, it's proving a little hard because that was a devastating defeat for me to say the least.”

Hatton suffered a devastating second-round knockout-loss to pound-for-pound king Manny Pacquiao in the “Battle of East and West” on May 2.

The entertainer

“With all the success and the happy times you've had, the hardest thing is to say bye to it all,” noted the Briton who has a record of 45-2, with 32 knockouts.

“I'll always be in boxing in some way, shape or form, but as far as the actual fighting goes, I'm just recharging my batteries and mulling everything over in my mind and I'll make a decision when I'm ready,” he added.

For the meantime, Hatton is still accessible to his fans via “An Evening with Ricky Hatton.”

“The fans only ever get to see you box, they don't get to know Ricky Hatton the man,” he reasoned. “But this gives me the chance to speak to the fans and give them a few funny stories and talk about my career."

While the boxing world awaits his next step, Hatton revealed that he is contented with his career.

“I knew I was pretty good when I started out and could do quite well at the game,” he said.

“But when you think that I've won four world titles now, the IBF twice, WBA welterweight and light welterweight, the IBO and WBU as well as having the biggest post-war crowd at Manchester City stadium, I realize how much I've done in my career.”