CLUB FIGHTERS
professional in 1999, United had just won the treble (three major trophies in a single season).” This addresses a commonality between the Man City of Hatton’s heyday, the Leeds and Forest teams cherished by Wood and Warrington, Tony Bellew’s Everton and the Sheffield Wednesday and Sunderland loved by freshly minted world titleholders Dalton Smith and Josh Kelly, respectively. All of these clubs are huge in terms of fan bases, but their histories contain struggle and hardship to rub shoulders with and generally outweigh the moments of glorious success. Until the final years of his career, when he sported a Manchester United badge on his trunks as he boxed on the undercard of Hatton vs. Juan Lazcano at Man City’s stadium, Moore wore the colors of the 20-time English champions fairly lightly. A boxer trumpeting their support of an all-conquering soccer team can’t pull at those underdog heartstrings. Suffering while watching your team lose a soccer game does not remotely compare to the physical and mental suffering endured by elite fighters, but it adds to the picture of authenticity around the men concerned and the thrilling sense that we can all be a part of something. “Everyone knew Ricky was one of the lads, and the football club association definitely enhanced it,” Moore says. “He came from a football background, Rick. He was a very good football player. He was just that typical down-to-earth lad who all the fighters could look up to. Then you brought football into it. There’s the relatability of the vast majority of men around that age who liked going to the pub and watching football on a Saturday afternoon; they saw in Ricky what they saw in themselves, except he was an elite athlete as well. He was a very relatable person.” Hatton was among a minority of Man City fans who, at times, expressed greater fondness for their days of shambles and relegation than the glut of trophies and excellence after the
Abu Dhabi takeover. Sure, getting behind a jab and winning 120-108 on all three scorecards is great, but doesn’t getting cut over both eyes before bludgeoning your opponent with body shots to win against the odds make you feel more alive? “The reason boxers get the following when they’ve got clubs that aren’t necessarily massively successful is the fans probably want a bit of success,” Moore adds. “They see the fighter and think, ‘D’you know what, we’ve got somebody to back here, and we’re back on the winning horse rather than the losing horse. The vast majority of the time, when we go and watch the match, we’re coming off second best.’ “Without sounding disrespectful, at that point in time, when [Man] City was sort of hit and miss, they saw in Ricky a bit of success, which they didn’t see in the football club. Also, all boxers have a blind belief in themselves that nobody else can see. I think that’s another thing people admired about him. And if you relate that to City at the time, it was certainly one of those things where he backed them blindly, regardless of whether they were winning or losing.” P erhaps the most potent element in the U.K.’s trend of football- loving fighters is how the link between club and boxer ties these champions not just to a place, but to a community and shared sporting lineage. “When I go to the games and I’m getting my cup of tea, people come up for pictures and tell me they were at the last fight,” WBC junior welterweight titleholder Dalton Smith explains. “It’s a special feeling, and it’s something where I’ve got the duty to go and give something back to them, because they’ve always come back to show their support.” Smith’s talk of duty to fans might seem unusual in this most solitary and dangerous of sports. We flock to fights for our entertainment, but it’s preposterous to claim the combatants in the ring truly owe us anything. However, Dalton doesn’t feel a duty to
fans; he feels a duty to men and women he has stood and shouted alongside in the grandstands at Hillsborough Stadium. He’s them, and they are him. It might be a delusion on one level – as Moore points out, boxers are pretty good at that – but it also creates an authentic and powerful feeling of being part of a collective. Now a world champion, Smith would dearly love to box at Hillsborough later this year – even more so given Sheffield Wednesday’s recent relegation (demoted to a lower league) while gripped by a state of financial ruin. “Of course I’d love that, and it’s something that the club would love themselves,” he says. “Times aren’t the best at the moment for the club, so if I could bring a big night of boxing to Hillsborough and uplift the fans … they’ve always shown big support for me, so to be a part of that would be a dream come true.” The soccer teams these fighters support being synonymous not just to great cities, but often specific pockets of those cities for a century or more, means they are intertwined with their localities in a way U.S. sports franchises rarely are. Everton F.C. had been playing at Goodison Park in Walton, Liverpool, for almost 124 years by the time Tony Bellew persuaded his promoter, Eddie Hearn, to plonk a ring on the hallowed turf for his May 2016 shot at the vacant WBC cruiserweight title against Ilunga Makabu. Bellew was serenaded during his ring walk with Everton terrace chants alongside the club’s walk-out anthem, the theme song from the 1960s and ’70s police drama Z-Cars , which was set in Merseyside. “I love what our club stands for. If I hadn’t won that night, I would have never come back to Goodison Park and it would have been the worst night of my life,” Bellew told BBC Radio Merseyside in 2025, as Everton prepared to leave their famous old ground. “I’m the only person in history to ever win a world title at Goodison
Park. The main event, the dream scenario, the dream stage, and thankfully I got the job done. I did get knocked down heavily in the first round and got my nose broken on the way to it, but I got up and wreaked havoc just like Everton does. “It is everything I dreamed of as a kid. When I came into this place, I realized my dreams. This was my lifelong dream, to fight for a world title at Goodison Park. I wasn’t good enough to play for Everton Football Club, but I was good enough to win that world title here.” A t Everton’s state-of-the-art new facility, Hill Dickinson Stadium, the team still comes onto the field to Z-Cars , only it’s Bellew’s mix with a sample of an air-
the first time against a tough Tyler Denny on March 21 at London’s Copper Box, a stone’s throw away from West Ham’s home ground. The 23-year-old’s ambitions to become a world champion and to box at the London Olympic Stadium go hand-in-hand. “I imagine football teams feel like this when they go out and play. You’ve not just got you and your family and your people around you; you’ve also got a whole club and a fan base wanting you to do well. When I hear the chant on fight night, people shouting “Irons (West Ham’s nickname)!” it’s special to me to have the energy at my fight that you see at games.” New IBF junior middleweight titleholder Josh Kelly strikes a similar tone.
Fighting at Everton F.C.’s stadium was a dream come true for Tony Bellew.
raid siren playing at the start before the piercing snare drum kicks in, something they have done since early 2019. Every matchday, there is a constant reminder of “The Bomber” and his night of nights against Makabu. A team that calls itself “The People’s Club” giving a nod and wink for its people’s champion. At Manchester City’s Etihad Stadium, a banner bearing the legend “There’s Only One Ricky Hatton” has hung from the East Stand since his tragic passing in September last year. That chant was heard frequently at Man City matches in the weeks after Hatton’s death, and his commemoration at the Manchester derby against Moore’s favorites Manchester United on the weekend of Ricky’s death was a deeply, almost unbearably emotional moment. But it was one born out of a love
He was given a hero’s welcome as a guest of honor at Sunderland A.F.C. after his gripping title win over Bakhram Murtazaliev at the start of the year. A unification with Xander Zayas at the Stadium of Light is his fantasy fight. “To have the backing of a football club is massive,” he says. “I’ve followed Sunderland since I was a kid, and to get their backing … it really, really makes me want to pack the stadium out and get big fights back there.” Persuading an undefeated champion to swap the summer in Puerto Rico for the former industrial north east of England might feel like a hard sell. But fighters from Hatton onward have come to believe anything is possible when you have an army of soccer-mad Brits at your back.
and adoration that means Hatton will always be a cherished part of the Manchester City story despite never kicking a ball for them. It might start with something as silly as an adopted song or a badge on some boxing shorts, but when these links to a soccer club are genuine, it gives fighters another way to endure long after the final bell. Why wouldn’t you want a piece of that? “It’s special; it gives you even more purpose, even more fuel to your fire,” says British and Commonwealth middleweight champion George Liddard, who defended his titles for
62 RINGMAGAZINE.COM
RINGMAGAZINE.COM 63
Made with FlippingBook - Online magazine maker