Ricky Hatton: My exhibition fight against Marco Antonio Barrera will be a celebration, it has been a difficult time for us all

When Mike Tyson and Roy Jones Jnr had their exhibition fight a few years ago, I thought any former professional fighter, or any former world champion given the opportunity would to do the same and jump at the chance.

Of course, our best years are behind us. I made my comeback in 2012 and I still stick by what I said after that. I wanted to find out of I still had it and I didn’t. So my fighting days are over.

But having a move around with some like Marco Antonio Barrera, a fight legend and a friend of mine, is a great opportunity. We all know how good he is and for me to have an opportunity to find that out first-hand, you can’t put a price on it.

It has been a difficult time with lockdown with people struggling with their mental health. I have lost friends during Covid, I have lost friends through mental health struggles. It was a horrible time. So now we can have a bit of a celebration, not a boxing fight, but a celebration. Ricky Hatton coming back for one last dance at the Manchester Arena.

We will have live bands on, we will have celebrity boxing matches on the undercard, we are celebrating, putting on a show. And we will raise money for mental health causes in the process.

Of course, me and Marco have seen better days. But we are retired, we are not dead! We are still champions. It will be competitive, but there will be no liberties taken, me and Marco are friends. It is an exhibition and I think the fans will love and appreciate that.

It is great to see your heroes fight one last time knowing they won’t get hurt. And that is what people worry about. You don’t want to see people you love get hurt and you won’t see anyone get hurt here. It is an exhibition, not a fight.

I think some of these sort of fights have not been