Manny Pacquiao’s Former Boxing Foe Ricky Hatton Sparring Again, Comeback in the Offing?

Ricky Hatton, who fought several top-notch boxers such as Manny Pacquiao and Floyd Mayweather Jr. in his prime, is reportedly sparring again, prompting speculation of a comeback from the former welterweight king.

Hatton, the former top cog in the Junior Welterweight division in the last decade, is reportedly working out with Belfast native Ryan Burnett, who's scheduled to fight on the undercard of Carl Frampton-Jeremy Parodi showdown on Oct. 19.

The former four-time world champion reportedly spent several rounds sparring with Burnett and plans to do the same with his future fighters in an effort to find their mistakes, which could potentially be fatal at fight night.  

"Because of my retirement I'll never be a slim Jim, but it was good to get in there and do a few rounds," Ricky told Livefight.com. "What better way of training the lads is there than sparring? By getting in the ring I can see if they're dropping their left hand or making any other mistakes their opponents can take advantage of."

Hatton admitted that there are lots of better trainers out there, but he believes he's the only one willing enough to slug it out with his fighters.

"There's some great trainers out there, but I can't think of one who'd be willing to do some sparring with their lads. I'll be doing it with all my mine from now on," Hatton added.

Hatton thinks Burnett has the speed and power to be successful. However, he believes his fighter needs to learn the technical side of boxing and come up with a win in a 10-round or 12-round contest bout.

"Ryan is very quick, but he's still a novice. He's knocked his first two opponents out, but he's still got to learn how to in-fight. This was a good way of showing him a few things and he very well," Hatton said.

When asked if he would ever make another comeback, Hatton replied with an emphatic "no," insisting that he's happy with the outcome of his boxing career.

"There's no chance of me fighting again. I'm very happy with the career I had and all achieved so I'm going to leave it at that," he said.

"Although the result didn't go my way, I got what I wanted from the fight with Senchenko. I proved I could go straight back in with a former world champion and I'm proud of that," said Hatton.

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