There has always been something more than Guinness, Karaoke and drinking naked at dawn in Las Vegas between Ricky and Matthew Hatton. Every time they sat to look at the fight, they felt blows. They took each of the blows, every failure and moment of glory. This is the fighting brothers. When it looked like Ricky had finished boxing, he was one last week of great fight for boys. It was Matthew, this time Ricky.

At the end of 2010, there was the offer of Robert Diaz from Golden Boy, that Matthew would fight the saul “Canelo” Alvarez; 10 rounds in a welterweight in Los Angeles in March 2011. Alvarez was a child of 20 years, undefeated in 36 fights, and his name began to wear a challenging currency in our company. Oscar de la Hoya was very excited about a child.

“We agreed on the conditions of the fight within 10 rounds at 10.7, and then a few weeks before the camp they dismissed,” Hatton remembered. “The title of WBC WBC was empty and asked if I was fighting him for this title at 10.10. We talked about money and we made a contract.” Hatton has never been a great welterweight weight, but it was a proper welterweight; Alvarez was always a beast, a beast with every weight.

The boys came to Los Angeles a week before the fight. Initially, they began to defeat the residence low, they hide, a silent gym, without receiving in red. No confusion, only a tight diminutive group. There was Ricky, Bob Shannon, Ray Hatton, Gareth Williams, their lawyer. More friends and relatives arrived a few days before the first bell – it was Hatton Way.

They switched to a wild card and suddenly landed in the land of great fight; Children in Canelo hats, ancient men speak Spanish about a child, Freddie Roach is a diplomat. The Hattones saw and heard all this earlier, there was no great fear or surprise. Everyone was gigantic boys, they knew how the company works.

Matthew could fight, never forget about it. His record of this week in Los Angeles is 41 wins of 47 fights, he defeated Gianluca Branco for the European title, did two good defense and was sewn over 12 against Lovemore N’dou in a program promoted by his father. That night the ring looked more like a crowd in a baptism family than a great fight. House, father and brother’s advantage never helped: “I could take them off my Christmas card list,” Matthew told me.

Alvarez beat over 12 rounds in his last fight. Yes, Hatton could fight, not make a mistake, and any canopy of protection extended by the reputation of his brother has long disappeared. I don’t think it ever exists.

“We’ve still heard that he would never bring importance and that he was huge,” added Hatton. “Everyone on a wild card spoke about him. I did not care about the weight, but I still told Gareth, our lawyer and my father to make sure he was 10.10 when we got into the scales.” Everyone knew that Alvarez was unlikely to be weight.

“I entered the scales and I had 10.9, and then he began and was 10.12. It wasn’t a shock,” said Hatton. “I returned to the hotel and left Gareth and my father to solve it. He had an hour to bear the burden – he returned and was a bit heavier; he did not bother, he never intended to bear the burden. It was never his plan.”

Hatton returned to the hotel, relaxing, eating. Without panic, he knew what he signed, he knew exactly what he was in Los Angeles.

“They called me in a hotel and asked what I want to do and I had a choice,” continued Hatton. “I could pull out and still get 20 or 25 percent, but I had about 30 families and friends there: I was going to fight. Then they told they asked for double. I told them:” They won’t pay twice. ” I just ate and then called and they said they would pay double. “

There was a fresh agreement with the weight, submitted by men desperately to save the night; It was agreed that Alvarez could be no more than 10 pounds the next day. It sounded good, Alvarez listened and was almost kept. “They conducted the last control from 17:00 to noon, and he got on the naked scales. Later he weighed us-I had 11.1, and he was 11.12. What could I do? I always intended to fight. I never went there on vacation.”

Alvarez entered the ring about 20 pounds heavier than the initial agreed weight and was probably a heavier stone than Hatton.

“In the ring I enjoyed the atmosphere, I really was, and then came in, in one of these enormous Mexican dresses,” added Hatton. “He took it off and I looked at: the fuck, he looked like Popeye after spinach. He was huge.” I witnessed it from the ring and it really must be a nightmare vision for his opponents.

“I immediately felt the importance of his shots and the way he moved,” I knew in about a minute, “I knew it would be a hard night,” said Hatton, as honestly, as you might expect, and I could feel the emotion of the arms in his voice. “I just had to fight.”

And fight, he did it. This is not a fight you imagine, remember or a fight that was said to be so. Look, it won’t be a waste of time. Full 12 rounds tonight in Los Angeles Alvarez won points. The rest, as they say, is a story.

Boxing in Great Britain has always had a powerful connection with football fields. In recent years, Tony Bellew He fought at Goodison Park and Josh Warrington at Elland Road, while Ricky Hatton boxed before nearly 60,000 people in Manchester Stadium, now known as the Etihad stadium. In 1993, Nigel Benn and Chris Eubank aroused a classic meeting in Ancient Trafford. The most celebrated of all, Wembley Stadium was the scene of one of the largest British competitions. The first took place in 1924, when Jack Bloomfield met American, Tommy Gibbons, in a program that went bankrupt the promoter, while Muhammad Ali and Henry Cooper there in 1963.

Unfortunately, some of these great stadiums have been demolished. For the second time, when Cooper crossed the gloves from Ali, on this occasion for the heavyweight world championships, he was in Highbury in 1966. Do not outdo, the great rivals of Arsenal, Tottenham Hotspur, allowed the operate of White Hart Lane, also a long time ago, for Frank Bruno and Joe Bug in 1987 in 1987. Featherlight massive title, rejecting Harvey’s great linen. Elsewhere Bombardier Billy Wells in St James’ Park, Newcastle, in 1916, where he defeated Dick Smith from Woolwich for the title of British heavyweight.

This week I would like to talk about a series of high -class programs that took place in 1948–1951 in Selhurst Park, the Crystal Palace house, now so well in the Premier League. The land was built in 1924, but there was no boxing there after the war, when the original Crystal Palace, a magnificent glass structure built in 1851, was nearby. This building, which burned on Earth in 1936, regularly performed in boxing in the 1930s, both in the room and in the open air.

In 1948 there was an extremely good medium yield, airy and heavyweight from Croydon and nearby. Selhurst Park was only a few kilometers from here, so it was an obvious place to organize vast -scale events in this area. After the war, the sport will then flourish, with a vast number of desperate people, to return to some normality after six years of savings and difficulties. I suspect that something similar can happen this year.

Six concerts were held on Earth in this four -year period and all of them took place, as you can expect in the summer months. The weather was not only more reliable in the case of outdoor shows, but there was no football with which you could compete. The promoters of the first five events were Bill Goodwin and Alf Hart, and for the last Ron Johnson in 1951.

Albert Finch was the undoubted star of these programs [pictured above]. In 1950 he ruled the British medium champion, defeating Dick Turpin for the title, then lost him with his brother Dick, Randolph, six months later. During the first performance in Selhurst Park, in 1948, Finch beat Jock Taylor from Sidcup, in seven rounds on the bill crowned by another Croydon Middle, Mark Hart. Nine weeks later, Finch returned to win the eliminator of the Southern Medium Southern weight title against Bert Sanders Kilburn before 10,000 people. Then he defeated Hart for this title in All-Croydon, staged in the city of Davis Theater.

In 1949, in his last fight, before he challenged Dick Turpin in his first, losing, offering the British title, Finch knocked Bob Cleavera in seven rounds on earth. He returned there the next summer, in his first competition as a novel champion, when he detained Juan Torrecilla from Spain in the third. In his last duel in Selhurst, Park Finch stuck the South African Billy Wood in five rounds in May 1951. He won all five competitions at the stadium, four of them at a distance and as the crowd loved him. Finch died in 2003, but many are remembered by many in Croydon and outside.

I felt like All my career It was a challenge.

I didn’t get gigantic breaks, I didn’t get the exhibition that others did. I have always had the highest respect for both Ray Leonard and Thomas Hearns and I am sure they had the same for me. Leonard told me that there would be a fight between me and him, and I knew it happened one day.

As for Hearns, I always knew that Tommy was a good warrior with a good right hand. He was statuesque, slender and very cunning. He always had good management behind him. He was a boy No. 1 of Manny Steward. And Manny looked after him very much, preparing for his fight. But I always counted on the day when I and he met.

[The fight should have happened two years before but Hearns pulled out with an injured finger]. I said, “What? I know guys who would take this payment and cut off this little pink. I thought, to be straightforward, he wasn’t sure of the fight because he saw me as a real threat. I thought it was an excuse.

I needed a gigantic fight and someone who was a potential threat to me. Basically, I cleaned my division and needed fresh meat. I needed a up-to-date and other kind of challenge. Someone who people thought can beat me. It sold tickets. But I got better and achieved a perfect number in the right time. He said he was going to reject my bald head. I thought: “Great, it means that it will appear and I will get payment.” But I tried not to scare him in case he didn’t get on the ring with me. I was polite and tranquil because I didn’t want him to run away.

Entering the fight I was a nasty guy. I wanted war. And there was no question of hell that he was going to take my title. I achieved my improvement and I was more hungry than ever. It was thrilling and electrifying for me and I knew it would be a drama.

I tried to keep the pressure on the whole fight. And I had a solution to everything he had. I had to put pressure if it boxes. The first round was too thrilling and too blurred. I was surprised that he could take as many blows as. He tried to fly me. I followed him non-stop.

I was not lucky in boxing, and things do not go in my power because of my politics. And I see it all flashing before my eyes when I was cut. I thought: “They are trying to steal him and take away from me.”

I went to the doctor and he asked: “How do you feel? Do you see? So I said,” Well, I don’t miss him, right? ” So he said, “Go further” and I thought, “Oh, he is [Hearns] I’m going to get it now. I became even more aggressive and the monster left.

I never wanted to kill another man in the ring. But everything could happen if he survived. I thought I would hurt him really badly, the adrenaline flowed so much. You have to imagine it would do it a tragedy. The whole conversation comes out in the ring. I didn’t finish and I was ready for more. I was in such a huge shape. But thank God he was fine, and the fight ended when it happened.

[In the end] It was worth all the fights and sacrifices. I wasn’t the shiny star for all the fights, being a bad guy, having this deadly image. They never looked at my artistic side. I was a switch. I was a complete warrior. I think that at that time it was the climax of my career. People now knew that I was a great warrior. I wanted to be the best and I was. And now people look at me as a legend.

Incredible.