By Mark Vester

Welterweight Matthew Hatton wants to step out of the shadow of big brother, Ricky Hatton. On March 28 in Altrincham, he faces Ted Bami in show being presented under his own family company, Hatton Promotions. Matthew says that his career was slowed because former trainer Billy Graham often ignored him and gave most of the attention to brother Ricky. Matthew broke away from Graham last year and is now trained by the combination of Lee Beard and Floyd Mayweather Sr. Big brother Ricky is now Matthew's manager.

"No disrespect to Billy, as I have had no fall-out with him and would never put him down as a man, but he did very little with me," said Matthew to the Manchester Evening News. "Billy was doing all his work with Ricky and I was basically training myself. I look back on them as lost years, when my career should have been moving forwards. I have no-one to blame but myself. I needed to change but because I was winning, sometimes you make excuses."

"I should have looked at my performances, because I wasn't boxing to the best of my ability. I look back at those times with bitter regret, because the only reason I stayed at Billy's gym was because I really enjoyed training with my brother, and working with Kerry Kayes, who put a lot of time and effort into training me on the weights."

Matthew wants to redeem his career and the four defeats on his record. He feels the new training combination has already turned his career around and now he wants to take to the next level by winning a title.

"I have four defeats on my record now, but you have to look a little bit closer to get the full picture," said Matthew. "Even though I have defeats on my record, the reason I didn't leave Billy's camp earlier was because in my own head I didn't believe I had been beaten. But I lost fair and square to Craig Watson and decided to make the change. My two performances since then have been two of the best of my career. Since I have left Billy, Lee has given me something my career has lacked - some personal attention. A lot of the time I get one-on-one with Lee and that is something I missed."

"I am only 27 and not been in a lot of wars and have a good defence. I still feel fresh and the best years are to come."

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