British boxer Ricky Hatton has revealed that he tried to kill himself on several occasions following his initial retirement from the sport.
The Manchester fighter hung up his gloves in May 2009 following a defeat to Manny Pacquiao but will make his comeback fight in less than two weeks against Vyacheslav Senchenko.
However, the 34-year-old experienced a number of personal problems away from the ring and admitted that he tried to end his own life on a number of occasions.
"I was going out and thinking – I'll drink 'till I fucking die. It was me against the world. It was a madness. And that led to other things like the drugs," Hatton told The Telegraph.
"I was having blackouts, walking round in a daze, whether I'd had a drink or not.
"My girlfriend had to take a knife off me several times. I can't blame it on me coming home drunk. It was happening when I was sober, drunk, whatever. I was just crying in front of my girlfriend, with her saying, 'Give me that, give me that,' and me saying, 'No, I'm going to do it.' I never had the balls to do it. But that doesn't mean it was never going to happen."
Hatton faces off against the Ukrainian on November 24.
