Ricky Hatton was last seen by family members on Friday, September 12 – less than 48 hours before he was found dead at his home in Gee Cross, Hyde, an inquest heard on Thursday morning.
The court heard that Hatton’s manager and long-time friend, Paul Speak, found him “unresponsive” on Sunday, September 14 when he arrived to take him to Manchester Airport.
Hatton’s family said he appeared “well”, but after returning home, he didn’t attend an event he was due to attend the following day, as expected. No details of that event were revealed to the court.
A provisional cause of Hatton’s death was given as ‘hanging’, and a full inquest will be held on Friday, March 20, next year.
A funeral for the two-weight boxing champion took place last week, as thousands lined the streets of the city to pay tribute to Hatton as his courtege made its way to Manchester Cathedral.
Hatton’s coffin stopped off at a number of places en route, including the Cheshire Cheese Pub, the Betta Bodies Gym and the AO Arena. Tyson Fury, Liam Gallagher, Tony Bellew and Frank Bruno were among the boxing stars in attendance.
Former Manchester United forward Wayne Rooney, England cricket legend Andrew Flintoff, and TV presenter Paddy McGuinness also attended Hatton’s funeral. Sky Sports’ Adam Smith delivered a heartwrenching eulogy from inside the cathedral.
After the service, Hatton’s cortege stopped off at his beloved Manchester City’s Etihad Stadium. Hatton was due to attend City’s home fixture against United on the day he was pronounced dead at his home.
Hatton’s 24-year-old son Campbell helped carry the coffin in heartbreaking scenes and he opened on about his father’s death live on Good Morning Britain on Thursday. When asked by GMB host Kate Garraway how he’s coping, Hatton Jr replied: “Yeah, it’s been a bit of a whirlwind the last few weeks.
Obviously, we’ve been leading up to the funeral, which was unbelievable to see the amount of love everyone had for my dad. There were thousands in the streets and there was a lot of comfort to take from that. It has been very up and down, really, but just as a family, we’re trying to take each day at a time, really.
“He always said he was more proud of his fanbase than all the belts and his titles. Surprised is probably the wrong word because it was obvious how much he was loved by the amount of people that followed him all over the world to watch him box.
“To actually see everyone in the streets, it was a very long route that we went down, and there was never a point where the streets weren’t full. To actually see it in terms of the amount of people, it was surreal really.”
Hatton will be remembered as one of Britain’s greatest-ever boxers, retiring from the sport in November 2012 with a record of 45 wins and just three losses.