Troubled boxing legend Ricky Hatton has spoken out about his battle with depression and his suicidal thoughts.
“Hitman” Hatton, 38, was once one of the most decorated young boxers in the game with two world title belts to his name.
But after his first brutal defeat to Floyd Mayweather in 2007, the Stockport fighter said his mental health deteriorated.
Left feeling like a spent force, Hatton, who has battled depression his whole life, says he struggled to come to terms with not being at the top.
Now he has admitted that adjusting to life without boxing has driven him to the brink.
Ricky Hatton is a British former professional boxer who competed from 1997 to 2012. During his boxing career he held multiple world titles at light-welterweight and one at welterweight.
Speaking to BBC Radio 4’s Programme, he said: “I tried to kill myself several times.
“I used to go to the pub, come back, take the knife out and sit there in the dark crying hysterically.
“There were times when I hadn’t had a drink for days and I’d still come home and if something went through my mind I’d start pondering something.
“It was the same outcome whether I was having a drink or wasn’t having a drink.
“But in the end I thought I’ll end up drinking myself to death because I was so miserable.
“I was coming off the rails with my drinking and that led to drugs. It was like a runaway train.”
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