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Ricky Hatton has helped his charge Ryan Burnett improve his training by getting in the ring and sparring him himself. ‘The Hitman’ swapped his focus pads for gloves on Friday morning and did several rounds with the Belfast prospect in order to sharpen him up for his appearance on the undercard of Carl Frampton’s clash with Jeremy Parodi, on October 19.
And Hatton says it’s something he’ll be doing with all his boxers from now on.
“Because of my retirement I’ll never be a slim Jim, but it was good to get in there and do a few rounds,” Ricky said.
“What better way of training the lads is there than sparring? By getting in the ring I can see if they’re dropping their left hand or making any other mistakes their opponents can take advantage of.
“When I hit them on the chin it hits home and I can’t teach them that kind of lesson with the pads.
“There’s some great trainers out there, but I can’t think of one who’d be willing to do some sparring with their lads. I’ll be doing it with all my mine from now on.
“Ryan is very quick, but he’s still a novice. He’s knocked his first two opponents out, but he’s still got to learn how to in-fight. This was a good way of showing him a few things and he did very well.”
Despite his enjoyment of sparring again, ‘The Hitman’ was quick to rule out another comeback.
He said: “There’s no chance of me fighting again. I’m very happy with the career I had and all that I achieved so I’m going to leave it at that.
“Although the result didn’t go my way, I got what I wanted from the fight with Senchenko. I proved I could go straight back in with a former world champion and I’m proud of that.”
