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"My Heroes" Oasis

















You're stuck behind a three-wheeled old banger, stuttering and stalling at the traffic lights... Thinking of giving the driver a piece of your mind?

Well, think again, because behind the wheel could be Ricky "The Hitman" Hatton, a barrel of bulging muscles with fists like sledgehammers, who's on the way to becoming the greatest boxer Britain has ever produced.

The next punch Ricky throws with a vengeance will be aimed at the American Floyd Mayweather. Their bout, under the chandeliers of the MGM Grand Garden Arena in Las Vegas in December, has just been announced.

The welterweight match will earn Ricky £5million. To add to the £2.5million he collected after flooring Jose Luis Castillo in four rounds in June.

He has gone 43 fights unbeaten (46 if you count the playground scuffles) and, at 28, is already worth £12million.

And yet we're sitting in a semi-detached home, in a back street in Hyde, Manchester. Ricky says this is his dream home, the sort of palace he thought he'd never be able to afford in the days when he was a trainee carpet fitter.

It must have set him back the best part of £200,000. Parked outside is that three-wheeler, Ricky's pride and joy, never mind the top-of-the-range BMW next to it.

It's one of the original Reliant vans from Only Fools And Horses. He bought it for £20,000 from a collector and his hobby is to drive it around Hyde, wearing a sheepskin coat and flat cap, Del Boy-style.

Looking around at the snapshots in Ricky's home and they're a celebrity gallery... Ricky with Tom Jones, Ricky with the Gallagher brothers ("My heroes. I play Oasis in the dressing room before a fight"), Ricky with Sly Stallone. "This is my favourite spot in the whole house," he says, leaning back on the chocolate-leather sofa in the corner, surveying his collection.

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Source: www.sundaymirror.co.uk

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