Former unified bantamweight world champion Ryan Burnett is preparing for pain – even if it’s for a good cause.
The 33-year-old Irishman, forced to retire injured in 2019 with a 20-1 (10 KOs) record, was trained in the early part of his pro career by British great Ricky Hatton, who passed away last year.
Burnett took the loss hard, and almost immediately knew he wanted to try to do something. Then the Ricky Hatton Foundation was set up.
So, on May 3, Burnett is running the Belfast Marathon but he’s doing it with a twist. Burnett is aiming to do it while pushing a cart that weighs 63.5kg (139.9lbs), the weight Hatton came in at when he won his first world title, dethroning the great Kostya Tszyu in Manchester.
While Burnett has kept himself in shape in retirement lifting weights, his injuries have meant cardio has been limited.
The ever-popular Hatton took his own life last September, and Burnett started training in October.
He is taking on the challenge to raise money and awareness for both the Ricky Hatton Foundation and TAMHI, a Belfast mental health charity that works with sports clubs and groups. TAMHI have helped build the cart.
It’s not been easy for Burnett trying to get his body to respond to the workload. He’s suffered two slipped discs in his back, has a tight hamstring and he’s had plantar fasciitis.
He’s done a half-marathon as a first marker as he’s built his roadwork up and he’s hoping other men from Hatton’s remarkable life will run legs of the overall route alongside him to keep him going and on Saturday he completed 10 miles with the cart.
“I just had this overwhelming thing that I wanted to do something,” Burnett said. “I didn’t know what but then it popped into mind, ‘I’ll do the Belfast Marathon.’ And me thinking, ‘what’s going to be really, really hard’ I thought, ‘What if I pushed the weight Ricky weighed when he won the title, that would be really, really hard.’”
Burnett, who has asked the likes of Campbell Hatton, Andy Lee and Carl Frampton to run legs with him, said there’s a six-hour time cap, and he’s not focused on time, just coming in under that.
“As long as I do it within the six hours, that’s okay,” he said.
