RICKY Hatton is looking back at some of his lowest moments. And, as you might expect, he doesn't pull his punches.
"I had a knife at my wrist every night," the Manchester boxing hero says. "I had the bottle to get in the ring with anyone but knew I couldn't do the one thing I wanted to do. I didn't have the bottle to slit my wrists."
Hatton is talking about his life after losing to Filipino legend Manny Pacquiao in Las Vegas in May 2009, the Mirror reports. His spectacular career looked to be at an end. That and other factors combined to wreck his mental health. He recalls: "On my own at home I was having panic attacks and crying because of not being able to [kill myself] until I ended up thinking, 'I'll drink and drug myself to death."
Today, happily, the former champ, 44, is back from a family holiday in Tenerife and looking relaxed and healthy ahead of the premiere of Hatton, a devastatingly honest documentary about his incredible life. He's proud of it and believes it has a message.
"Non-boxing people will enjoy this," he says. 'Enjoy' might not be the right word but non-boxing people will certainly be gripped.
The highs are glorious as the working-class kid from Hattersley council estate gets to hang out with Oasis's Gallagher brothers and appear on Parkinson as he fights his way to top of the bill in Las Vegas - but the slow-motion decline is a brutal watch.
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