Hatton faces his biggest fight yet

Ricky Hatton’s admittance into a rehabilitation clinic is yet another case of a sports star falling victim to the perils of depression, and yet another sad tale of the demise of a former boxing champion.

We’ve seen countless others who have been hit hard by the problem of depression - Paul Gascoigne, Frank Bruno and Marcus Trescothick to name just a few of those.

Now, after recent newspaper revelations of drug use, ‘The Hitman’ faces the toughest fight of his life so far as he tries to battle the demons which have obviously taken over since the 31-year-old realised his career in the ring was finished.

Hatton has always enjoyed his drink between fights so I wasn’t surprised to see he had been making a lot more than his fair share of visits to the pub since he got dispatched of in two rounds by Manny Pacquiao back in May 2009.

But, to see him taking drugs was a surprise and it’s sad to see such a character, a down to earth family man, snorting cocaine in a hotel room.

Replacing the drug that is sport is always a difficult task, especially those who live and breathe their profession. So many struggle and Hatton is just the latest in a long list.

Boxing is a hard sport to walk away from, many hang around in the game far too long and refuse to hang up their gloves, leaving themselves open to physical and mental damage.

Hatton seemed to be coming to his senses, after first speaking about wanting to fight again after his battering at the hands of Pacquiao he recently came out and said that his time in the ring was up despite renewing his licence with the British Boxing Board of Control in July.

A lot of fight fans breathed a sigh of relief that they wouldn’t have to see one of their favourite boxers endure any unnecessary punishment after a long career.

But this declaration came amidst this apparent depression and the sudden realisation on his part may have tipped him to breaking point. If not, the newspaper revelations certainly did.

Ricky can be very grateful he has a strong family around him who have no forced him into rehabilitation as the News of The World revelations may have ruined him for good.

The paper in question was definitely correct to publish the story. They were given evidence in the form of video that a British sports star was a drug user - it’s a no-brainer.

However, with his image in tatters, an already despondent and isolated Hatton could have fallen deeper into depression. We all know what it can do to you but thankfully his family and management have helped him go to rehab.

Despite all of the history of depression with sports professionals, Hatton’s case is one that has surprised me as during his boxing career he wasn’t exactly the type of fighter who devoted himself fully to the ring.

There’s boxers, and other sportsmen and women, who live for only one thing and that’s their sport. They cut themselves off from normal life and push themselves to very limits but when that goes they’re left with nothing but the financial rewards and a name in the history books.

Hatton never quite did that, but that’s not a detrimental comment on what he achieved as he’s won world titles and done very well for himself financially.

However, we all knew between fights he was ‘one of the lads’ and could drink Guinness as good as any Irishman, so he wasn’t a ‘loner’ or cut off from reality but he obviously hasn’t had the right friends around him.

The 31-year-old also had his promotion company to look after which was something to keep him busy and continue his involvement in the sport that he loves but it obviously wasn’t enough for the former world champion.

The BBBofC will now look at his case when they can next meet with him so he could still lose his licence to promote and will almost definitely lose his boxing credentials.

This will no doubt hit Hatton hard, and he’ll need even more support, but let’s hope he can get the help he needs and we will see the ‘Hitman’ sitting at ringside in the future watching one of his protégés claim a world title.

And let’s all hope that when this scandal dies down that the charitable, and utterly likeable Hatton can be remembered in the boxing world as the exciting fighter who thrilled many an audience with his thrilling and aggressive style.


On a side note, the woman involved in the case, Emma Bowe, an Irish National boxing champion (had no fights to win this as nobody else entered her weight so she won by walkover) who decided to sell her video of Hatton snorting cocaine to the News Of The World is just as disgraceful as the former world champion’s actions.

She may have, or may not have enjoyed a line herself, but selling the story about Hatton, who she calls her ‘friend’, to the newspaper is sickening.

The newspaper to publish the article, it was too good to ignore but Bowe’s greed to compensate from her supposed pal’s problem is despicable and something that proves again that some people have no morals.

She believed she was acting in his best interests by revealing his problem but she was just interested in the big pay day, and not what the story could have done to him.

If Bowe was really interested in his interests then why didn’t speak with his family? Or even some of his closer friends?

You can bet she never even considered that, she ran to the nearest newspaper who would bite and she struck gold. I certainly hope my friends are more trustworthy than her if I ever run into a spot of bother.

Cheats steal more than just gold

The name Pauline Davis-Thompson won’t mean anything to most readers. Even if I told you she was from the Bahamas you probably wouldn’t recognise the name unless you were a big athletics fans. That’s another clue, she was a sprinter. Got it yet? No?

Well Davis-Thompson won the gold medal in the 200m at the Sydney Olympics in 2000. However, she was not crowned champion after her race like most winners - she had to wait until December 2009 to get her medal.

You see the Bahamian sprinter came second in the race, she was beaten to first place by disgraced athlete Marion Jones, but when the American finally came clean about her deceitful career, Davis-Thompson got what she rightly deserved but it’s just not the same.

Davis-Thompson’s name may be down in the record books as the gold medallist but she was denied one of the greatest parts about being a gold medallist – the proud moment when you stand on top of the podium as your national anthem is played out and images of you with gold draped around your neck are sent around the world.

The sad thing is, she is one of many who have had this feeling over the years. In a way she is lucky she even got given a gold medal. So many haven’t.

They haven’t because the authorities failed to catch the cheats in time or at all. In Tom Humphries’ excellent book Laptop Dancing And The Nanny Goat Mambo: A Sportswriter’s year, he speaks about Shirley Babashoff one of swimming’s greatest but never managed a gold medal in an individual event.

Simply because she faced the East Germans in the 1970s, a time where they were so drugged up, it was lucky they didn’t dissolve when they entered the pool.

Shirley never got what she deserved but she did pull off a remarkable feat to win the 4x100m relay with her American team-mates in one of swimming’s greatest races at the 1972 Munich Olympics. Babashoff deserved more, she deserved a level playing field.

More recently, the 1996 Atlanta Games will forever be remembered in Ireland but sadly for the wrong reasons. We all read the stories about Michelle de Bruin (Smith).

We didn’t realise at the time that it’s not possible for a swimmer ranked 90th in the world to jump up to be a three-time Olympic champion in a couple of years, not within the rules of sport at least.

We were blinded by her story, we should have seen through it.

Many berated American swimmer Allison Wagner when she publically claimed that De Bruin was not doing it the legit way. How wrong we were. De Bruin, or Smith as she was then, still holds the three gold medals and Wagner, Marianne Limpert and Dagmar Hase never got what they merited having finished second to a cheat.

There’s too many cases to mention and then there is those who missed out on Bronze medals because of the cheats. I could be here all day. But I won’t bore you no more. I’ll get to my point.

A recent article in The Daily Telegraph, correctly points out that fans are also the ones who lose out to these cheats.

Speaking about Marion Jones and about the recent Pakistan cricket controversy, the make the bid that fans should be repaid ticket costs if events turn out to be fixed or competitors have cheated.

I agree, it’s a fantastic idea and would mean that governing authorities would clamp down on cheating a lot harder if they knew they were going to be out of pocket.
However, they should be focusing on protecting honest athletes, not just their bank balances.

I can only imagine the pain athletes go through after years upon years of dedication, early morning training sessions, sacrifice after sacrifice and put all their love into a sport, only to beaten to a gold medal or a world championship.

But then to have that pain compounded in later years to find out the ‘sportsperson’ who beat them was filled full of drugs, must be life shattering.

They are the real losers and they are the ones who suffer the true heartbreak. They have dedicated their lives to one thing – their sport – and they have been betrayed and let down by the governing bodies.

Fans turn up, pay their money and, while they play their part, they’ll soon get over it if a cheat wins but those who competed against them will never lose that feeling of injustice.

Those in second, third and fourth are not even thought of when drug scandals break out. They never get their moment, they are the ones that need the refund but sadly you cannot give back time and effort, even if they had a receipt.

I feel for any Pakistan cricket supporter that paid money to see their team play against England, I feel for any fan who handed over cash to watch an Olympic final won by Marion Jones but their loss isn’t even comparable to the athletes' loss.

Argie bullies board into sale

The transfer window slams shut tomorrow evening but not until we have about 12 hours solid of Sky Sports News getting overly excited every time a player gets into his car and we’ll also have the ridiculously false, yet highly amusing, ‘My gran’s best friend’s sister’s cousin’s twice removed aunt just saw Adebayor by a red t-shirt from JJB sports and now he’s off to Liverpool’ type texts.

However, what this window has yet again proved is that players hold all the cards on transfer deals. Unless you have a strong board or manager that is.

The main transfer this year that has conveyed this would be the Javier Mascherano transfer to Barcelona which was finally completed today (Monday) after a summer-long saga in which the Argentine midfielder threw his toys out of his pram and demanded a move out of Anfield.

We thought he wanted to follow Rafa Benitez to Inter Milan, the man who signed him from West Ham and gave him a starring role in Liverpool’s midfield, which, while still not right considering he’s contracted to Liverpool, it may have made more sense.

He excelled at Anfield and became one of the world’s best midfielders. Not saying it was just Liverpool that done it for him, playing with Lionel Messi and co in the Argentina squad would also have helped too, but the Reds paid a lot of money, £17million in fact to prise him from West Ham and that agent player owning agent, Kia Joorabchian and gave him a chance to play at the top level.

What reward did Liverpool get? A situation where they were forced to settle for just £500,000 more than what they paid for the Argentine back in 2008 and that was from Barcelona, as Inter wouldn't even give that.

Now £17.5million is not a figure to be sniffed at but surely if he was worth so much two years ago, he’s worth a few million more this time.

However, Liverpool were left with the dilemma of having a player who doesn’t want to be at the club or getting some money for him now and keep harmony in the squad.

That saying, Roy Hodgson and the Liverpool board could have handled it differently.

Sir Alex Ferguson knew Cristiano Ronaldo wanted to join Real Madrid in 2008 but the Scot managed to talk the Portuguese star into staying another year at Old Trafford – a year where Man United won another league title and reached a Champions League final. He also got £80million for him.

This summer Arsenal refused to be bullied by Barcelona into selling Cesc Fabregas even though the midfielder wanted to join the Nou Camp outfit, they held their stance and Arsene Wenger no doubt talked the Spaniard into staying, for another year at least.

But the problem is with the players. Mascherano should not be allowed to put the board and management under pressure to sell. He signed a four-year deal and is handsomely rewarded for his efforts on the pitch, he should be made to play it out if the club wants him.

Jamie Redknapp spoke about players constantly being ‘tapped-up’ by managers and clubs on Sky Sports a couple of weeks ago and said it’s part of the game. Well it shouldn’t be.

No player should be approached by another club unless they are asking him to sign when his current deal ends or they have permission from his club. That has also led to this all happening time and time again. FIFA need to implement new rules or tighten the ones they have currently in place.

Clubs take financial risks in giving these players huge contracts and, while I’ve always backed players in getting their fair slice of the cake, they’re not doing themselves any favours when they demand to leave with the threat they’ll walk around in a sulk for the season.

Emanuel Adebayor was whinging about the travesty of him having to sit on the bench at Manchester City now that they’ve brought in some more big names, I bet he didn’t even stop to think that would happen when he signed that big contract last summer. Put up with it.

City were always going to buy more players with the war chest that they have, he would have known that but still fancied a nice pay rise to move to Manchester.

Imagine the tragedy that Adebayor will have to endure at City every time he leaves his big house and drives to Eastlands in his flash sports car to earn over £100,000 a week by maybe playing 90, 60, or god forbid, just five minutes of football.

Also, ‘the inhumane’ conditions Mascherano may have had to endured according to international team-mate Messi if Liverpool had not succumbed to his demands. I’d say those people in Pakistan watching their homes being washed away shed a tear for the Argentine.

If players don’t want to be tied down to a club for too long then they should negotiate shorter contracts instead of worrying about getting a big signing on fee so that they can buy a new lamborghini to sit in the drive alongside the Range Rover, Ferrari and Porsche.

Or maybe they should stop complaining, be grateful for the talent they have and be happy that a club is paying them ridiculous amounts of money to play a sport that most enjoy as a hobby. Showing some loyalty would be nice too.

Frampton's refreshing focus

Carl Frampton’s and his promoter Barry McGuigan’s confidence in the young Belfast fighter has been shown again as he prepares to square up to former European title challenger Yuriy Voronin at the Ulster Hall on September 18.

After just six fights for the man known as ‘The Jackal’, it’s certainly a bit of a risky decision to take on an experienced boxer like Voronin who, despite seven losses, has 27 wins and 18 knockouts to his name.

Voronin also pushed Irishman Bernard Dunne to the limit back in 2005, losing by just two rounds and has drawn one of his European title challenges against France's Cyril Thomas.

However, the Ukrainian lost in his last outing against Manchester featherweight Joe Murray who, like Frampton, had just six bouts under his belt before he faced Voronin back in February.

And at 37-years-old, Voronin is certainly no spring chicken which means it is a fantastic match up by Frampton’s team as it provides him with a credible opponent that may be tough, but is certainly beatable.

There are so many young fighters, too many to mention in fact, that are over-protected by promoters who are keen to ensure they can cash in on their men in the future, McGuigan’s stance is refreshing.

The former world featherweight champion wants his man in against top opponents and is happy to take the chance but there’s no doubt it’s not a silly risk, he’ll know that Frampton is ready for a bout like this.

Moving his fighter on quicker means it keeps people interested in him and there’s enough hype about Frampton already that McGuigan can put him top of the September 18 bill, despite it only being his first eight round contest.

McGuigan is hoping that the ‘The Jackal’ made enough of an impression on the Belfast faithful in his Kings Hall win over Londoner Ian Bailey in June so that he can fill the Ulster Hall this time and the selection of a tough fighter will be key to increasing Frampton’s support.

As McGuigan said at the announcement of Voronin as the opponent, boxing fans in Belfast won’t stand for him putting a dud in front of Frampton.

And he’s right, fans in Northern Ireland have been treated to watching some world class fighters over the years fight in their capital– McGuigan himself, Wayne McCullough and Dave McAuley have all defended world titles in the city.

They won’t settle for seeing a 23-year-old prospect easily stopping another young fighter in the early rounds as top of the bill entertainment and Voronin will provide a good enough fight to excite fans while also giving the Belfast man a chance to show his worth.

Frampton is also keen to take on better opponents and he wants to keep moving quickly and at a young age he’s certainly got the world at his feet.

A win over an opponent like Voronin who is known across Europe would certainly increase the Belfast boxer’s reputation across the continent.

Not only that, but it will show how he can handle a strong, experienced opponent as he continues to learn the ropes in the paid ranks.

It’s certainly Frampton’s biggest test yet but it should just be a small bridge that this exciting fighter has to cross on his way to the top of the super-bantamweight division.

Paul Scholes - Loyalty pays off for both sides

In the past few days we have seen Paul Scholes receiving plenty of adulation from football fans after two outstanding performances against Chelsea and Newcastle United in the red shirt of Manchester United.

And it’s certainly well deserved as the Premier League’s quiet man continues to churn out top-class performances at the age of 35 and looks set to have a solid season with last year’s Premier League runners-up.

Four-years-ago, Scholes’ career looked like it was declining after a number of injuries hampered his performances, and he wasn’t a regular on the Sir Alex Ferguson’s team sheet.

However, now, as his manager pointed out, he’s had his first season in a long time last year where he remained injury free and that has helped him regain the level of performance that we saw from him in the late 1990s and early 2000s.

In fact, some would say Scholes is a better player nowadays. Having had to curb his box-to-box style of his younger days, the Salford born midfielder now let’s the younger legs do the running as he picks out pass after pass with consummate ease.

Analysts, fans and opposition players seem flabbergasted that at his age he can still do it but it’s for the same reason the like of Paulo Maldini could keep going for so long at the top level – a loyalty to one club.

When Scholes was struggling with injuries a few seasons ago, it would have been easy for Ferguson to decide his midfielder’s days were up at the club and sold him on to a lesser club.

But the United boss never even thought of doing such as thing, as he was in debt to Scholes and he had to repay the faith the ginger haired number 18 displayed for Manchester United over the years.

Scholes’ head has never been turned by big-name clubs on the continent and he’s never been tempted to ‘face a new challenge’ as all these top stars seem to say when they sign on the line of a contract double their previous salary.

No, Scholes has stuck with the club he grew up supporting and his challenge has always been to help United win trophies and represent his country before his international retirement, there aren’t many more challenges bigger than that.

If the 35-year-old moved to another club five or six-years-ago, it is unlikely he would be still playing at the top level as other manager’s may have grown impatient with him when he continued to pick up niggling injuries and he could have found himself constantly out of favour.

Ferguson repaid his loyalty by sticking with him and is now reaping the benefits of having Scholes returning to top form as £18million man Owen Hargreaves struggles to get back to fitness.

It’s not been a risk for Sir Alex, he knew Scholes still had the burning desire in him and he knows the ability is still there from the midfielder.

But when you know a player inside out, when you grow a professional relationship with him and when he has helped bring you success in the past, you’ll always give him opportunities.

Staying with the same club also means less moving about, a solid base and not having to constantly adapt your playing style to suit different teams. Scholes knows how Ferguson works and he knows how United play better than most.

The same can be said for Scholes’ team-mate Ryan Giggs too as his loyalty to United has meant he is still being utilised at the top level but you also have to look at how the pair have dealt with the glitz and glamour of a professional footballer’s life – they shunned it and lived a normal life, well as normal as it gets for top class sportsmen.

There’s never been a story of Scholes urinating in the streets of Manchester at 5am or bedding an £800 hooker on a trip away. He’s a family man, and a better footballer for it.

Keeping himself out of the spotlight has helped him live a low profile life with less stress so he can just enjoy his football. And he certainly seems to be having fun on the pitch at the moment.

It is a shame that his interviews are as rare as a well-timed tackle from him, because he has spoken to Sky Sports after his last two games and it just proves how much of an intelligent football man he is.

But it’s all proof that young players living the high life and signing more contracts and sponsorship deals than Nike itself, won’t be around at the top level as long as Paul Scholes and if they are, certainly not putting in performances of his calibre. It’s just a shame he can’t tackle!