Jeremy Bates – BOXINGWRITER.CO.UK

Article first appeared at BigFightWeekend

As footage showed Ricky Hatton’s funeral cortege rolling through Manchester on Friday, blacked out limousines shining like poured Guinness, the route was lined by Mancunians clapping and cheering, it was natural to wonder whether boxing would ever see his like again.

A monochrome image of him in retirement, his fighter’s frame made stout by middle age, appeared above the ring the following night in Sheffield for the show topped by Dave Allen and his heavyweight slug fest with Arslanbek Makhmudov. Applause accompanied the boxing custom of striking the ring bell 10 times when a former champion has passed away.

I’m sure I could hear Ricky saying Kostya Tszyu in that broad accent of his in the fog of my mind and the image of him entwined with his trainer Billy Graham in that moment of absolute joy when he’d beaten the veteran champion swirled into view. Hatton beat many capable men in a distinguished career, but Tszyu remained his pinnacle.

Continue reading →

Article first published at BigFightWeekend.com.

Usually, it comes down to money. That is the ‘why’ of every fighter’s inability to retire at the zenith of their respective careers, with their personal peaks, however modest, conquered. Pugs and champions in their thirties and forties have always scrambled to resist the slope that waits beyond that crescendo since first they donned gloves.

Lennox Lewis spoke to Sky Sports this week about his hope that Oleksander Usyk would follow his own rare example and depart the sport at the very top.

“When a guy retires, it’s really down to him. He’s got to feel that push that he wants to retire.” Adding, “I would say to him to retire at your own time but retire on top. Like I did.”

Continue reading →