As Ricky Hatton agonises over retiring permanently from the ring, his mind may be made up for him by the refusal of Manny Pacquiao’s esteemed trainer to help him come back.
Freddie Roach master-minded last year’s stunning defeat by Pacquiao which pushed the Manchester Hitman to the brink of quitting.
Now he reveals that Hatton asked him to become his trainer as well and prepare him for a last hurrah in the Manchester City football ground.
In the wake of Pacquiao’s latest conquest – that of the much bigger Joshua Clottey before a 50,000-plus crowd in the Cowboys Stadium here – Roach says: ‘Ricky came to me when I was over in England with Amir Khan. He’s a good guy but I’ve had to get back to him and tell him I can’t do that because I believe he should retire.
‘The knock-out Manny inflicted on him was one of the most devastating I’ve ever seen. I said at the time that I thought Ricky should stop and I can’t go back on that.’
Hatton has been prevaricating for months, veering between the desire to go out with a win rather than on his back and his waning appetite for the rigours of shedding up to 50 lbs to make the light-welterweight limit.
In the past week alone he has told friends he is finished with fighting but appeared on television denying that he has come to a final decision.
Devastating: Pacquiao leaves Hatton on the canvas 10 months ago
Hopefully, Roach has convinced Hatton that he has nothing left to prove and he can hang up the gloves with head held high and his victory over the great Kostya Tszyu the crowning point of a stellar career which brought him world titles in two divisions.
Still king: Pacquiao celebrates victory over Clottey at the weekend
Rather, another defeat following KOs by Floyd Mayweather Jr and Pacquiao would threaten to tarnish his image.
As one of the most colourful and engaging characters in the hard old game, he can surely keep a place in the addictive limelight and buzz of boxing as a ringside TV commentator.
The Hitman’s boxing brother, Matthew Hatton, reported that he appeared diffident about training when he returned from holiday looking even more overweight than usual.
The constant blowing up on booze and binge-eating takes its toll eventually and, as Roach observes, Hatton has lost his resistance to big punches.
Even the lighter Juan Manuel Marquez, one possible opponent, would present a real and present danger.
Persuading a fighter that the time has come to quit is one of the trickiest aspects of being a trainer and Roach takes that responsibility seriously. He says: ‘It’s not what they want to hear. They love the thrill of the ring. But if I know its over I tell them, even if that risks them going to another trainer. That’s happened a few times but they usually come back to me later and tell me I was right.
‘As a matter of principal I have to stay firm on that opinion of Ricky. I know he’s done with boxing. That day will come with Manny. There is no sign yet that there is even the slightest reduction in the speed which makes him the best pound-for-pound fighter in the world but another couple of huge fights might be enough for him, at 31.
‘We would love to beat Mayweather and if that happens Manny can think about the future. He is loving the whole aura of being the greatest world champion but fortunately he has other things in his life which can take its place in due course. His career in politics, acting and singing can keep him excited and that will come sooner rather than later.’
No defence: Clottey is powerless to stop Pacquiao’s right
It also comes as disappointing news for those who hoped to see Pacquiao in the ring with Roach’s latest prodigy, Britain’s own Amir Khan.
Roach will be in Khan’s corner for his US debut on May 15 when he defends his world light-welterweight title against New York’s Paulie Malignaggi in Madison Square Garden. He says: ‘That will be a big night for Amir but he has a way to go yet before he would be ready for Manny so that fight is not going to happen. Manny is too close to the end.’
Sepia hero: Randolph Turpin Randolph Turpin
The 50,000 turn-out for Manny Pacquiao’s latest demonstration of his pound for pound mastery came as a reminder of the Englishman who pulled off an upset at least as sensational as Mike Tyson’s defeat by James Buster Douglas.
Not that the crowd in London’s Earls Court was of that magnitude on the warm midsummer night when Randolph Turpin shocked the world. That was to come in the re-match in New York.
Still there was not a ticket to be had when the American in the pink Cadillac came to town. My father’s solution to that was to smuggle me into the building through an alley-way door he had left unlocked while working there as a scaffolder.
What an introduction to big-time prizefighting for a nine-year-old.
In 1951, Sugar Ray Robinson was beyond peer as the best pound-for-pound boxer on earth. To this day, many still rank him above Muhammad Ali as The Greatest of all time.
That puts into context the enormity of Turpin’s achievement.
The son of the first black immigrant to the English spa town of Leamington was the British, Commonwealth and European champion but a smattering of defeats on his record lulled Robinson into believing there was little risk to his world middleweight title in venturing across the Atlantic.
To the astonishment even of those of us who were roaring Randy on, Turpin not only out-pointed but comprehensively out-boxed the great man over 15 rounds.
In so doing, he became a national hero overnight. When he went home to Leamington and a civic reception, tens of thousands of Middle Englanders thronged the square beneath the balcony of the town hall.
The sting in the tail of that epic triumph, however, was a re-match clause in the contract and Turpin’s reign as world champion was to last barely two months.
Robinson dedicated those eight weeks to stepping up his training regime and he was ready for Randy come September in New York. The attendance of more than 67,000 remains a record for a middleweight fight.
They saw Robinson at his majestic best, breaking Turpin down on his way to a 10th round stoppage.
Turpin was never quite the same thereafter even though his crisp punching power did land him another surprise win, this time an 11th round KO of Don Cockell for the Commonwealth light-heavyweight title.
Another journey to New York for a second attempt at the world championship vacated by Robinson ended in 15-round defeat by the moderate Hawaiian Carl Bobo Olsen.
Turpin boxed on until 1959 but the colourful personality which added to his popularity subsided into depression, in parallel with his decline as a fighter and the steady drop in his bank balance.
A comeback two years later lasted only two fights and a sorry descent into fairground wrestling did no more than his tenancy of a public house in North Wales to prevent his descent into bankruptcy.
Tragically, the loss of fame and fortune ended with him shooting himself in 1966, one month short of his 38th birthday.
One monument to a man who astonished the world – in addition to our memories of that magical night – is the statue of Randolph Adolphus Turpin in the Market Square at Warwick.
