Ricky Hatton Ends Retirement, Booked To Face Marco Antonio Barrera In An Exhibition Bout

Ricky Hatton will be boxing again.

The 43-year-old retired back in 2012 following a knockout loss to Vyacheslav Senchenko. However, nearly 10 years later he’s booked to face Marco Antonio Barrera in an exhibition match later this year, the Sun reports. The fight is not done but they are in advanced talks.

This shouldn’t be a surprise as Ricky Hatton wrote in a newspaper that he is interested in doing an exhibition bout that the likes of Floyd Mayweather and others have done.

“I am all for these dream fights we keep hearing about,” Hatton wrote for the Metro. “I have youngsters coming up to me, saying, ‘I’ve watched your fights on video but I never got to see you live! And I think that is why I’m a fan of these exhibitions. You’re not going to see your heroes get seriously hurt, it is a chance to see them showcase their skills one last time and you can raise a bit of money for charity too, so I’m all for it.

“There’s a couple of picks that spring to mind for me. If we are talking domestically, I would still love to see Joe Calzaghe vs Carl Froch. They very nearly came close to fighting, Joe was coming to the end, Carl was coming to the forefront. There is always those what-ifs, so if it were an exhibition between those two I think that would be quite a nice one for fight fans.”

Ricky Hatton ended his career with a professional record of 45-3 with his other two losses to Manny Pacquiao and Floyd Mayweather. He holds notable wins over Paulie Malignaggi, Luis Collazo, Juan Urango, and Juan Lazcano among others.

Marco Antonio Barrera, meanwhile, is 48-year-old and has not fought since 2011 when he beat Jose Arias by decision. He’s 67-7 and one No Contest as a pro and also fought the who’s who as he lost twice to Pacquiao and once to Amir Khan.

Will you be watching Ricky Hatton’s return fight?