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Ricky Hatton – The New Addiction – Part 1 of 2
TUE August 30, BUSTER PARIS - I need to see more Ricky Hatton. I don’t know how to put it any clearer and it’s really starting to effect me, so someone needs to hear me - I need to see more Ricky Hatton.
It’s funny how a simple curiosity turns into an interest and then quickly spirals into an obsession or addiction.
I’ve been told that the first step to dealing with addiction is admitting that you have a problem. OK - I have a problem. I’m a boxing junkie and my drug of choice right now is Ricky “The Hitman” Hatton.
Remember Pooky (Chris Rock) from New Jack City (movie/1991) – well, to quote Judd Nelson:
“I am Pooky”
Like most tales of wretched and fierce addiction this one starts out innocently enough. It was nearing the summer of 2005 and one of the fights to watch that summer was penciled in on my calendar as a maybe – a Kostya Tszyu fight.
Kostya’s next prey was to be Ricky Hatton who I never heard of. I did a little homework and discovered that Hatton was a 26-year-old fighter from England with an undefeated record of 38 wins - 28 of them by knockout.
I happen to be one of those American elitist snobs when it comes to boxing and you could have 1,000 wins and no losses on your record, but if you never fought a Philadelphia fighter, then you’ve never really fought have you?
That was my mind set, so Hatton’s record to me translated to he’s a young, untested second-rate fighter whose probably fought no one of any real ability and is being served up to Tszyu because he’s got this great on paper resume.
Remember at this time Tszyu hadn’t lost a fight since 1997 – that’s eight long years – let’s say you were a freshman going in to high school in ’97 – Kostya Tszyu will go on a winning streak until you graduate … from college.
I forget what fight I was watching, but in between preliminary bouts they had an interview with Ricky and Kostya. Ricky looked bloated and puffy…ok he looked fat and he looked tired – I thought oh well, everyone’s got to lose sometime and the kid has had a good run. 38 wins with no losses is nothing to sneeze at and there’s no shame in getting beaten by Kostya Tszyu – everyone gets beaten by Kostya Tszyu.
June 4 2005 seemed like an ordinary day and I had no idea what the impact would be if I had just said no, if I had done something else that night. If I had taken the wife out to dinner and a movie…anything. I might not be having these night sweats, tremors and other dreadful doses of detox.
They say that most junkies spend their entire “using life” chasing that first high and I know all too well what they mean.
As part of my Hatton Recovery Program I try not to dwell on the particulars of that momentous night. It’s sufficient to just look at how the night ended with Tszyu unbelievably not coming out for the 12th and final round.
Hatton was an unrelenting pounding force of merciless brutality. He was Roberto Duran, Micky Ward and a malicious version of the Energizer Bunny all wrapped up in one big insistent compulsion of punches.
Yup – here I go chasing that first high. I am Pooky.
I hit the streets looking for anything Hatton. I hit the web too and wound up in some dark places I just shouldn’t have been, but I couldn’t stop, I couldn’t get anything – it seemed like the streets were dry, the web was dry and I had to settle for old articles about Ricky, I had to make his website my home page at home and at work (tip for Team Hatton – please update site).
People would come in to my cube and just shake their head in sympathy and disdain.
I couldn’t get my fix.
Maybe that would have been for the best, maybe I could have just painfully gotten over it and moved on, but I needed more. I had to see more…
What happened next was either a blessing or a curse.
Next week - Part II – Call Me Pooky
Buster Paris can be reached at: bparis@talkingboxing.com - and always enjoys receiving your thoughts, comments and questions…or anything Ricky Hatton related.
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