U.K.’s Ricky Hatton Quits Boxing After Defeat in Comeback Fight

U.K. boxer Ricky Hatton retired for the second time after being knocked out in the ninth round of his comeback fight by Ukraine’s Vyacheslav Senchenko.

Hatton, the 34-year-old “Hitman,” was floored by a body punch last night in his home town of Manchester, northwest England.

He’d come out of retirement after a 3 1/2-year gap following a second-round knockout by Manny Pacquiao of the Philippines in Las Vegas. That defeat meant Hatton lost his International Boxing Organization light-welterweight title.

“A fighter knows when it’s not there any more, and it’s not there,” Hatton told reporters last night. “I’m not going to put myself through that torture again, and I’m not going to put my family through it.”

Hatton’s only other loss in 48 fights was against Floyd Mayweather Jr. in December 2007.

In 2005, he beat Russian-born Australian Kostya Tszyu to win the International Boxing Federation light-welterweight title and later held the World Boxing Association’s light-welter and welterweight crowns.

To contact the reporter on this story: Peter-Joseph Hegarty in London at phegarty@bloomberg.net

To contact the editor responsible for this story: Christopher Elser at celser@bloomberg.net