Matthew Hatton confirms retirement from boxing

Former European champion Matthew Hatton has announced his retirement from boxing.

The high point of Hatton's career came in 2010 when he won the vacant European welterweight title against Gianluca Branco, but he has decided to call time on his 13-year career after the defeat by Chris Van Heerden in March.

Hatton regularly featured on the undercard of his brother Ricky's fights in his early years as a professional, but earned his own recognition with some battling performances.

He defeated former world title challenger Ben Tackie on points and also picked up notable wins over Yuriy Nuzhnenko and Roberto Belge during his reign as European champion.

The odds were heavily stacked against Hatton when he challenged Saul Alvarez for the vacant WBC light-middleweight title, but he produced a courageous display in a points defeat.

The defeat by Van Heerden ended Hatton's lingering hopes of another world title shot and he took the tough decision after learning he was facing a long lay-off due to an eye injury suffered in the build-up.


"I've had to work hard in every single fight from the get go but that has made me the fighter who I am and boxing has given me so many memorable nights."


"The one thing that I always wanted out of my career was the chance to say that I was a world champion," said Hatton.

"After the loss to Van Heerden, I thought about retiring straightaway because I genuinely believe that I should have been able to beat a fighter of that standard.

"That's not me being disrespectful to Chris because he is a good fighter but I just think to be at the level I believed I could be at, I had to be beating fighters of Chris' calibre.

"When you've got kids, you begin to realise what is important in life and when you've got a doctor pointing out all the possibilities of what could go wrong, it puts things into perspective.

"I've got two young children now and even though they can act as a motivation tool for fighters, they also highlight the risks that a fighter takes every time we step into the ring."

Hatton insists he has no hard feelings and will look back fondly on his achievements, which proved he could step out of his brother's shadow.

"That European title run was a big highlight for me because it finally showed people that I was a good fighter and I could certainly mix it at a high level," he said.

"My career has had many ups and down over the years and the only thing that I'd maybe change was the fact that I never had much of an amateur career.

"I've had to work hard in every single fight from the get go but that has made me the fighter who I am and boxing has given me so many memorable nights."

Matthew was durable but the one thing he lacked was power,which IMO is why he failed to make it right to the top, thus most of his performances had to be workman like.
Good luck to Matthew in retirement, comes over as a decent bloke.

I admired his determination to be more than just Ricky Hatton's brother, and was pleasantly surprised when he went the 12 with Alvarez. Good luck to him

BallchinianMuffwig wrote:I admired his determination to be more than just Ricky Hatton's brother, and was pleasantly surprised when he went the 12 with Alvarez. Good luck to him

Totally agree, thought he was the beneficiary of nepotism when getting on these big bills but he made every possible effort to step out of his brother's shadow.

A genuinely nice fella and I wish him well.

Disagree with the "power" statement Nico. Power isn't what kept him at domestic/euro level.

Malignaggi has no power and has been in some decent fights and has been world champion.

Also, good luck to Matthew, was always a top professional who did himself proud getting to where he did. Hope he has a good retirement.

Would tend to echo the general good wishes to him in retirement. Having such a famous and successful brother must be a double edged sword, as Dave said helped him get on decent bills but having to deal with the comparisons and carve your own identity must be difficult.

Genuine grafter as a fighter and showed in his tilt at Alvarez whatever he lacked at the top level it was not heart. Hope he enjoys his retirement.

Was never a fan of Matt Hatt, for a few reasons, but he certainly maximised his gifts and I have nothing but respect for the way that he gutted it out to become more than just Ricky Hatton's brother. A Commonwealth / European title double, as well as a valiant world title effort, is not to be sniffed at. Well done to him and I hope he enjoys his retirement.

Matt Hatton was good.......but he's no Mayweather.

ONETWOFOREVER wrote:Matt Hatton was good.......but he's no Mayweather.

If Mayweather loses to Alvarez on points then Matthew can chuckle and say "Hey, me too."

Hatton was good...But hes no Gareth Bale

mobilemaster8 wrote:Disagree with the "power" statement Nico. Power isn't what kept him at domestic/euro level.

Malignaggi has no power and has been in some decent fights and has been world champion.

Give over,his brother Ricky had the ability to knock a man out, Ricky beat fighters who even he said  were more gifted and skilled  than him, Matthew didn't have that power, thus he was unable to hurt his opponents when he was been outboxed, that's why the wins on his record were workmanlike.If your not a great boxer and you can't hit hard enough to hurt your opponent, then you've got a problem when you move up a level.

DAVE667 wrote:

ONETWOFOREVER wrote:Matt Hatton was good.......but he's no Mayweather.

If Mayweather loses to Alvarez on points then Matthew can chuckle and say "Hey, me too."

If Alverez stops Mayweather then Hatton can say he was better than Mayweather as Hatton at least lasted the distance.

One of the good guys, and a very tough fighter. Much more than just "Ricky's brother", though you can't really raise that point without becoming part of the problem. Wouldn't mind him getting involved with the TV punditry; he seemed to live the sport and have quite a good knowledge of it.