13 years after fight, Ricky Hatton feels cheated against Floyd Mayweather Jr.

Retired world light welterweight champion Ricky Hatton feels he could have performed so much better in his world title fight against Floyd Mayweather Jr. in 2007.

Thirteen years since that fateful night where Hatton fell by way of knockout in the tenth round, the British says he kind of feel cheated against the unbeaten five-division champion.

“I did give him a good run for his money. I feel a little bit cheated, to be honest with you,” said Hatton in an interview with BT Sport.

“I felt that I wasn’t going to outbox him and I wasn’t going to outspeed him, but if I was allowed to get close I would definitely throw more punches than him. I never got the opportunity and that’s the thing that will always eat away at me. The referee never gave me the opportunity.”

Hatton’s regret comes from the fact that there were fighters who were allowed to close the distance against Mayweather. Such style according to Hatton gave Mayweather a run for his money.

“The one person that was allowed to get stuck in and bully him and was allowed to fight close was Marcos Maidana and he pushed him really close,” he explained.

“[Jose Luis] Castillo was allowed to get close and a lot of people thought Castillo won, so I smell a rat that night with the referee and I don’t think I was given a fair crack of the whip.”

Hatton is mostly remembered by Filipino fight fans for getting knocked out by Manny Pacquiao in two rounds in 2009. He retired for good after getting stopped in the 9th round by Vyacheslav Senchenko in 2012. – JM Siasat/RC, GMA News