Ricky Hatton turned Floyd Mayweather press conferences into stand-up comedy routines with crazy atmosphere from UK fans

Ricky Hatton will forever be an icon of British boxing who had the rare ability to generate huge fan interest before the days of Tyson Fury and Anthony Joshua.

The much-loved Mancunian drew massive crowds both at home and abroad as he took over 30,000 fans with him to Las Vegas for his fight with Floyd Mayweather back in 2007.

In the build-up to the Mayweather bout, Hatton grew his fan base further.

Boxing’s world champion everyman refused to take the pound-for-pound king seriously and instead mocked him constantly.

The American seemed particularly baffled at times during their pre-fight press conferences, which Hatton turned into stand-up comedy routines.

At the UK media event, with fans and even a Hatton-supporting band in attendance, the Brit said: “He’s been talking about my a*** all week.

“Kicking my a***, whooping my a*** – I think there’s something wrong with him…

“I’ve missed my son, my six-year-old son.

“But I probably haven’t missed him quite as much as you would think because I’ve had the misfortune to spend the full week with another f***ing six-year-old…

“Floyd’s gonna run away all night – he says he isn’t, but he is – he’s gonna run away all night and I know I’m gonna have to be fast on my feet to catch him.

“So I’ve got two wonderful sparring partners coming in – Forrest Gump and Carl Lewis.”

The atmosphere at their weigh-in was something else entirely, with thousands of rabid Hatton fans chanting vociferously in support of their man.

Ultimately though, the fight did not turn out well for the ‘Hitman’ as he was knocked out in round ten.

On that night, Mayweather silenced the UK fans, but now has far more positive things to say about Hatton’s supporters.

Back in March, Floyd toured the country in a series of ‘Evening With’ events and spoke about Hatton while in Sheffield.

He asked the crowd: “What’s the song y’all sang? Give me the song.”

A rousing reception of, ‘There’s only one Ricky Hatton,’ came from the British faithful, with Mayweather taking the role of the orchestra’s conductor as he had done back in 2007.

He concluded: “Man, I loved the crowd. I loved when the UK crowd came over and sung the song. It was remarkable, unbelievable.

“But when it comes down to it, it comes down to the two competitors.

“Heart, that kid got heart… But I don’t care how many punches a fighter throws at me. You can throw a handful of confetti at me, I got the best defence.

“Ricky Hatton is a warrior, I’ve had more experience with bigger fighters, stronger fighters, faster fighters, but Ricky Hatton is no pushover. One thing about him, he’ll fight anybody.”

You can watch back higlights from the press conferences in the player at the top of the page.