Ricky the Hitman Hatton is a boxer apart, he is possibly the only boxer I know who could fight at Welterweight and Light Heavyweight in the space of six months.

This autobiography is the story of Hatton a fun loving Mancunian who has a legion of loyal fans who love his commitment and no nonsense fighting style.

The book begins with the usual stories of family life, the Hatton household sounds as thought it was filled with humour and love, although obviously not the richest in the city.

Hatton and his brother Matthew, also a boxer, grow up winning titles at all levels until Hatton becomes professional, then it gets interesting.

I found the early life of Hatton interesting and the guy is always honest in his preparations and his abilities in a fight. He talks about his fights from the early ones where he cut easily and risked losing fights he was winning to developing his rib breaking body punches that helped bring him a world championship.

The book is well put together and covers the fight against Kostya Tzuyu where he is honest enough to admit the pain he felt during this crucial world title fight. He talks about fighting Mayweather and the build up which was amusing for all.

He does unfortunately make a lot of excuses after the loss and the whole story ends rather sadly with legal disputes with Frank Warren, changes of trainer and while he remains hopeful of a ring return, after the Manny Paquaio beating you realise Hatton´s lifestyle of eating and drinking to excess between fights which he talks about in detail has obviously affected the stamina of this worthy world champ.

The book is honest, down to earth and gets into the guts of Hatton the boxer and Hatton the personality, he seems like a really decent guy who has come good, but after reading the book, I really do feel he has had his time at the top, and some of the eulogising close to the end about more fights is worrying.

The book covers boxing, his life and he is honest about the qualities (lack of) of other fighters and the boxing world in general. You can tell his love of the sport is real and just wish him a safe and happy future after the read.

The book is available on Amazon Marketplace for 2.99 and I found 346 pages easily readable in an afternoon as it is easy text and has lots of photos of fights and Hatton in his awful shirts at his local pub after a fight!