Boxing: Hatton quits again after comeback defeat

Ricky Hatton of Britain kneels on the canvas after loosing his boxing match against Vyacheslav Senchenko of the Ukraine at the Manchester Evening News Arena, in Manchester, England, Saturday Nov. 24, 2012. AP/Jon Super

MANCHESTER, United Kingdom – Former world champion Ricky Hatton announced his second retirement from boxing after his comeback bout against Ukraine’s Vyacheslav Senchenko ended in defeat on Saturday.

After a three-and-a-half year retirement from the sport, in which the 34-year-old Englishman battled alcohol and drug problems, as well as depression, Hatton was outclassed by Senchenko, who took victory on a ninth-round stoppage.

“I needed one more fight to see if I had still got it – and I haven’t,” said Hatton, who now intends to concentrate on his work as a boxing promoter.

“A fighter knows and I know it isn’t there anymore. It’s too many hard fights, I’ve burned the candle at both ends, I’ve put my body through the mire in and out of the ring but it doesn’t matter how hard I train, I couldn’t have done any better.”

He added: “I’m a happy man tonight. I don’t feel like putting a knife to my wrists. I have got the answers I needed.”

“I got the opportunity and I got the answers and no matter how upsetting it is, I have got to be a man and say it is the end of Ricky Hatton.”