Richard John Hatton (6 October 1978 – 14 September 2025), also known by nicknames such as "the Hitman" and "the People's Champion", was a British professional boxer who competed between 1997 and 2012, and later worked as a boxing promoter and trainer.[6][7] During his boxing career he held multiple world championships in the light welterweight division, and one at welterweight. In 2005 he was named Fighter of the Year by The Ring magazine, the Boxing Writers Association of America, and ESPN.
In 2000 Hatton won the British light welterweight title, followed by the World Boxing Union (WBU) title the following year; he made a record fifteen successful defences of the latter from 2001 to 2004. He reached the pinnacle of his career in 2005 by defeating Kostya Tszyu for the International Boxing Federation (IBF), Ring and lineal titles. This was followed up later that year with a victory over Carlos Maussa to claim the World Boxing Association (WBA) title (Super version), thereby becoming a unified light-welterweight world champion.
Making his welterweight debut in 2006, Hatton won a tough fight against WBA champion Luis Collazo to win a world title in his second weight class. A return to light welterweight in 2007 saw him win the vacant IBF title for a second time, as well as the International Boxing Organization (IBO) title. In the same year, Hatton had his career first defeat against Floyd Mayweather Jr. in an attempt to win the World Boxing Council (WBC), Ring and lineal welterweight titles. This defeat took a severe toll on Hatton's wellbeing, as did a second defeat in 2009 when he lost his IBO, Ring and lineal light welterweight titles to Manny Pacquiao.
After Hatton's career was put on a long hiatus, rumours of a comeback continued to circulate in the media over the next several years.[8][9] In 2011, Hatton announced his retirement from the sport,[10][11] but in 2012, more than three years after his last fight, he confirmed his comeback.[12] A loss to Vyacheslav Senchenko in his first match back prompted Hatton to immediately announce his final retirement.[13] He remained retired for 13 years before announcing a comeback in July 2025. Hatton died before he could make his ring return.[14][15]
Hatton has been lauded as one of the most beloved and popular British boxers of all time, with a raucous fan base that travelled in their tens of thousands across the Atlantic to support him.[11][16][17] He was inducted into the International Boxing Hall of Fame as part of the class of 2024.[18]
