By Edward Chaykovsky

Manchester legend Ricky Hatton has urged heavyweight champion Tyson Fury to call him up. Hatton wants to help Fury deal with his deep depression and any substance abuse issues.

Hatton, a former two division world champion, has been in the same position as Fury several years ago.

After he was brutally knocked out by Manny Pacquiao in 2008, Hatton fell in a deep depression, became suicidal and began to abuse recreational drugs like cocaine. It took some work and the support of others for Hatton to overcome his demons.

Fury withdrew from a scheduled October 29th rematch with Wladimir Klitschko. He cited his ongoing battle with severe depression as the reason for his withdrawal. It was revealed a week later that he tested positive for cocaine, based on a sample provided during a random drug test last month.

On Tuesday, Rolling Stone magazine published an interview where Fury admitted to using cocaine and disclosed some chilling details regarding his depression and suicidal thoughts.

Hatton wants to do everything possible to help Fury get through his tough times.

“I’ve sent a text to Tyson asking him to give me a ring if he needs me. I’ve been down in the dumps and had some bad moments like what I’m hearing about him, so I want to make sure he’s OK,” Hatton told the Manchester Evening News.

“Tyson sometimes puts his brain into action before his mouth and seems to say the wrong things, but I know Tyson personally and the guy I know is a gentleman and a family man. I may have been a two-weight world champion but when something like depression comes on top of you then it’s bad. For all of Tyson’s mouth, he’s just a normal guy, and he deals with the same things that we deal with. It doesn’t matter who you can knock out in the ring, you can’t beat depression on your own. Tyson needs our help and my help is certainly there.

“I’m not saying I’m the one with all of the answers but if you’re just sat at home sulking on your settee then you’ll get worse. I don’t want him to get to the stage I got to as I was at a dark place, but I managed to get over that, so Tyson needs to nip it in the bud before it gets to where I was. Sitting on your own pondering things won’t make it better. You need to ask for help. I pick up the phone when I have bad days and I’m not scared to admit that.”

“People ask me a lot about boxing and I talk to them about it, but if they ask me about depression then I can try and give them advice on that too. Even I need to ask advice, so the people I ask are the best at it. Boxers and just men in general want to think that they’re fine because they’re men and they’re fighters, so they think they can do it themselves. I couldn’t do that though, so I don’t think Tyson can either, so if people are struggling with depression then they need to reach out and ask for help.”