Jamie Moore has paid a heartfelt tribute to the late Ricky Hatton, the man who beat him in the amateurs when they were just 15.
Moore, who went on to win the European title as a junior middleweight before becoming a sought-after trainer, remained friends with Hatton through the next three decades.
“We were 15 years old and we were mates ever since,” said a heartbroken Moore. “He absolutely battered me. He hit me with the first proper body shot I ever got hit with, hence why I started to use them after that, because I thought that was fucking awful. We became mates afterwards.”
Moore had just landed back in Manchester, UK, from Belfast, Northern Ireland, where the night before he had trained Pat Brown to win a bout at Windsor Park.
That fateful Sunday was the day the news broke that Hatton had passed away.
Leaving the airport, Moore felt his phone going off in his pocket but could not immediately answer it because he had his cases.
When he checked, he returned a call to his mum and was left to tell the rest of the team, which included Kerry Kayes, Hatton’s nutritionist throughout so much of his career.
“We were just sobbing in Manchester airport in the car park. It was just awful,” Moore said. “I still can’t believe it. I get upset thinking about him because he’s such a fucking beautiful man. Listen, he had his flaws like everyone. We’ve all got our flaws, but he was such a genuinely down-to-Earth, funny bloke.
“I don’t think people understand how much of an impact he’s had on boxing in this area. He gave us all a pathway to change our lives. I don’t think he even understood that, but he made us all believe that we could be better than maybe we could have before he came along – because he was such a talent. Yet if you spoke to him, he was just your normal, down-to-Earth bloke. And that’s what I loved about him. You’d never even think he was good. He was never cocksure of himself. He wasn’t full of ego. He was just a nice kid who can really, really fight. And I looked at him and thought, ‘That’s how I want to be.’ I don’t think he realized how far his impact stretched. He went above and beyond boxing.”
Moore has been grief-stricken since. Nearly every year, he and Hatton vacationed in Tenerife, Spain, overlapping on family holidays, with the families spending time together.
“The last time I saw him was a month ago in a place where we always used to go [in Tenerife], and he came in and I was in there with my family, and he came and sat with us and we were together for about five hours, and we had such a good night, and I’ll be forever grateful that I had that night with him. I’m just glad I got to spend that time with him. I really am.”
While in Tenerife, as with Ricky’s life back in England, the allure of celebrity meant he was often stopped for photos and to talk.
Moore recalled queues forming in Tenerife, where Ricky would stop, sometimes for more than 45 minutes or an hour, before he could go about his day.
“They all want a picture and a chat and he’d never say no, and he’d always be nice and polite,” Moore said. “That’s why you’d never get a bad word said about him by anyone, because he gave everyone the time of day. He was just that guy. He was so approachable. Never said no to anyone. And he was so relatable to everyone. What you’d class as a normal person.”
Ricky Hatton is one of the most popular fighters of all-time, a two-weight world champion and International Boxing Hall of Famer. His funeral will be held today at noon BST at Manchester Cathedral.
Tris Dixon covered his first amateur boxing fight in 1996. The former editor of Boxing News, he has written for a number of international publications and newspapers, including GQ and Men’s Health, and is a board member for the Ringside Charitable Trust and the Ring of Brotherhood. He has been a broadcaster for TNT Sports and hosts the popular “Boxing Life Stories” podcast. Dixon is a British Boxing Hall of Famer, an International Boxing Hall of Fame elector, a BWAA award winner, and is the author of five boxing books, including “Damage: The Untold Story of Brain Trauma in Boxing” (shortlisted for the William Hill Sportsbook of the Year), “Warrior: A Champion’s Search for His Identity” (shortlisted for the Sunday Times International Sportsbook of the Year) and “The Road to Nowhere: A Journey Through Boxing’s Wastelands.” You can reach him @trisdixon on X and Instagram.
