b'Whats the point of winning world titles if everyone thinks youre a tosser?THE picture on the left pretty muchopenness. We live in a world now wherethen we might be able to fix up something explains why we - Marc Asplandthose few professional sportsmen andfor the next day. But this was some and myself - went in search of Rickywomen who make it to the very top tend tointroduction to the Hattons. Hatton. It was taken just beforebecome a breed apart. Thats not just theirIm at home, why dont you come up Christmas in 2005, the year of thewealth, its also the celebrity thing, largelyand see us now? Ray said. fight that is commonly referred to asthe business of guarding their privacy,Because you probably want to go to his defining performance: thoseand with the media (and thus the public),bed was the answer. 11 breathless rounds with the greatnot letting us in apart from in smoothlyDont be so ridiculous, he replied. Ill Kostya Tszyu. That fight was socontrolled, anodyne, bite-sized windows ofsee you up here in 10 minutes.intense, so colossal, such a landmarkaccess. And Hatton was not remotely likeAnd thus it was that Marc and I found moment in the sporting year that halfthat. ourselves knocking on their door just after a year later we were on his doorstep inAnd so when this, his first Las Vegas10 oclock at night. In our job, people tend Hyde, Manchester because we wantedfight, came round, we wondered if here wasto be wary of us. They certainly tend not to to hear him talk about it again. an opportunity for something unusual inover-extend the hand of hospitality. They He wasnt at home when we knocked.newspapers: to present the whole picturedefinitely do not invite you into their homes So we went down the road to the Queenof one of Britains great champions. for a brew at bedtime.Adelaide, and then when he still wasntAlmost exactly a year later, then, MarcBut, as we would continue to learn, home after that, we went up the roadand I set off in search of Hatton again. Itthe Hatton family are pretty rare. Ray was the other way to The Lamb which waswas the Tuesday before Christmas. Marcthere with Matthew and Jenna, Matthews crammed full of the sounds and smells ofwas driving from Hertfordshire, I was flyinggirlfriend. They were watching a TV office Christmas parties. A short whileup from Heathrow, the idea being that weprogramme about the homes of professional after that, our man had indeed returnedwould check in to our Manchester hotel andfootballers. But we got chatting, then Carol, home, he met us at the door of his house,then drive to Hyde to meet Ray, RickysRickys Mum, arrived and we chatted some apologised, welcomed us inside, he made usfather. We had left the arrangements quitemore, they were open, interesting, often tea, introduced us to his three-foot singingloose, but we told Ray we expected to behilarious and absolutely insistent that we Santa which could play corny Christmasthere early evening, around 6pm-ish. drink their tea.tunes on its own electric guitar, he showed Unfortunately, that was the night thatRay and Carol are a sideshow in us his memorabilia room, he gave us theLiverpool versus Arsenal was called off,themselves. Ray talked about Carol as if time to ask our every question, offereda blanket of thick fog had rolled out over more tea and then posed by his garish fakethe country and within 24 hours, the newsshe was not in the room, Carol ticked off tree for silly pictures in his Santa hat. would be pumping out stories of desperateRay for not eating his vegetables when he When we left nearly two hours later,Christmas holidaymakers being unable towas a boy and explained that this is why it was dark outside and we were buzzing.travel. For me, this meant that my flighthe didnt grow any taller, Ray then spread The clich about Ricky Hatton is the termwas four hours late, for Marc, the motorwayhis hands and with a look of despair asked genuine bloke. The clich was right but,traffic averaged 30 mph and when we finallyrhetorically: Do you see what I have to put as we had just discovered, it stopped waymet, back at the Queen Adelaide, it wasup with?short. Whats the point of winning world9.50pm.When Marc and I left their house nearly titles and being on the telly if everyoneOK, so we had an excuse, but this wasan hour later, the Christmas lights in their thinks youre a bit of a tosser? was onenevertheless embarrassing and a dreadfulcul de sac were twinkling merrily and of his lines, typically bloke-ish, dry andstart. Clearly, our meeting was off. Fromwe had that same buzz wed had the year trademark Hatton.the pub, we called Ray, merely to explainbefore. We knew already that this was a His wit was an obvious attribute butwhat had happened and hoping that ifgreat story and that wed found the right I guess what really appealed was hisour apology was sufficiently sycophantic,people to tell it.page 7'