Daily Times

LONDON: Ex-world boxing champion Ricky Hatton says he tried to kill himself on several occasions in a battle with depression. The Briton also talked about the need for boxers to get more help after retiring, when he appeared on BBC Radio 4’s Today show, guest edited by Olympic boxing champion Nicola Adams. ‘I tried to kill myself several times,’ said Hatton, 38, who retired in 2012. ‘I used to go to the pub, come back, take the knife out and sit there in the dark crying hysterically.’ Manchester’s Hatton, who previously spoke to the BBC in 2011 about attempted suicide and depression, won the world light-welterweight and welterweight titles. Hatton was stripped of his licence to box in 2010 after admitting using cocaine and retired the next year before fighting once more. He is now a promoter and trainer. He continued: ‘There were times when I hadn’t had a drink for days and I’d still come home and if something went through my mind I’d start pondering something. It was the same outcome whether I was having a drink or wasn’t having a drink. ‘But in the end I thought I’ll end up drinking myself to death because I was so miserable. ‘I was coming off the rails with my drinking and that led to drugs. It was like a runaway train.’