Hatton had alternative exhibition fight fall through before Barrera

Ricky Hatton had another exhibition bout fall through before being booked in to face Marco Antonio Barrera. According to former super-middleweight world champion Robin Reid, he was in talks with The Hitman to stage a showcase fight last year – with a date and venue already agreed upon.

Shortly after Mike Tyson and Roy Jones Jr met each other for one final dance, Reid approached Hatton with an offer to face him in the ring. The pair were in discussions for three months and eventually agreed upon a December 8 date at the AO Arena, Manchester.

However, Reid claims conversations ‘went quiet’. Speaking to Express Sport back in June at BKB 26, he said: “To me it makes sense. Everyone’s doing these exhibition bouts. I called out Ricky [Hatton]. Not called him out, I got on the blower to him after the Roy Jones-Mike Tyson exhibition and said ‘you should be doing this’. He was on board.

“We were in talks for three months, thereabouts. Solicitors were involved, the MEN (Now AO Arena) was booked for last December, I think it was. I’ll have to say allegedly just in case he takes the hump or whatever, but yeah, the MEN was booked for the eighth [of December]. But it just went quiet.”

Reid still believes he won the fight to this day and wants to put it to bed once and for all inside the squared circle. “I tried to get hold of him a couple of weeks ago. Yeah. Yeah. And I got Glenn [McCrory], I asked Glenn. Glenn knows him, so I said, ‘now listen, try to get hold of him, you know, pass my number onto him’ just so we can have a chat,” Reid continued.

“Let’s just have a little sit down first to talk about what I have got in mind. It’s an exhibition, we’re not going to be killing each other, I don’t want to be killing myself at 51, but like a spar, bit of an open spar, that’s what I’m talking about.

“But I’ve heard he won’t have it because he’s got demons about the fight. He’s got demons about the fight? But I’m like ‘he won?’ I get it. I get it. The thing is it was a split decision, a close decision.

“So, at the end of the day, we should have had a rematch, but it never happened. But I think that is what the demons are about – or he’s more p***ed off than I am because people still talk about it 20-odd years on.

“I was honoured to grace the ring with such a fighter and to take him that close to beating him. I’ve got the utmost respect for him. At the time, yeah there was a bit of beef don’t get me wrong, but now I’m 51 and I look back on my career now and think ‘you know what, he was good, he was good, he was brilliant’, Roy Jones, Bernard Hopkins, some great wins.”