There aren’t many Mancunians that can argue that they are adored in their city as much as Ricky Hatton, but Liam Gallagher may well be one of the few that trump him. Following news that Gallagher and his brother, Noel, will reunite and reform ‘Oasis’ for a string of concerts, ‘The Hitman’ has reminisced of a time that the polarising rockstar almost ‘got him killed’.
Hatton built up a cult following as he extended his undefeated record to 43-0 during the noughties, becoming a welterweight world champion and a unified light-welterweight champion, before a famous battle with Floyd Mayweather Jr. in 2007, that saw ‘TBE’ travel to Manchester and attempt to deal with the abuse that coincided with Manchester’s love for Hatton.
Although, when it came to fight night, it was Hatton who was left wanting, as Mayweather scored a tenth-round knockout over the fan-favourite Beit to claim the WBC and Ring Magazine straps at 147lbs.
The 2005 Fighter of the Year bounced back in a homecoming clash against Juan Lazcano at the City of Manchester Stadium six months later and then returned stateside for a showdown against former IBF champion Paulie Malignaggi, registering an eleventh-round stoppage against the American.
Speaking to Lucky Block, Hatton detailed how, although he got the victory inside of the ring, The Gallagher brothers almost caused chaos outside of it.
“I asked Noel and Liam to carry my belts to the ring against Paulie Malignaggi. I gave Noel the Ring Magazine belt and Liam the IBO belt, and you could see they were both a bit nervous, obviously they had never walked a fighter out before.
“They asked, ‘what do I do, Rick, what do we do?’. I said, ‘get in the ring and hold it up and put it in Malignaggi’s face’. So, Noel got in, then I got in the ring, then Liam got in the ring. Liam then came straight past me, straight past Noel, and went straight up to Malignaggi and said something like ‘what do you think about that you d*** head?’ shoving the belt in his face.
“I thought ‘that’s not quite what I meant, Liam’. I didn’t mean to hold up in front of his face and abuse him, but it was funny. We can laugh about it now, it was brilliant.
“But then, Liam’s walking around ringside and Malignaggi’s fans are at ringside, and Liam’s giving the old Liam Gallagher two fingers to them. It was absolute gold. But a couple of Malignaggi’s supporters who were at ringside were not people you’d want to mess with. They said ‘we love you Ricky, but the rockstar needs to be careful, he really needs to be careful because he’s disrespected us. I was thinking Liam’s going to get us all killed here.”
Whilst the world is talking about the comeback of Oasis, Ricky Hatton previously lobbied for a comeback of his own and a potential rematch in an exhibition against Mayweather – but last month ruled out any possibility of facing the pound-for-pound legend again.
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