MANCHESTER, England (AP) — Ricky Hatton, the 46-year-old former two-weight world champion, will return to the ring to fight in the United Arab Emirates in December, 13 years after he retired.
The Manchester native, who turns 47 in October, will face Eisa Al Dah in Dubai on Dec. 2, it has been announced.
Hatton (45-3) has not fought since losing in his last comeback bout to Vyacheslav Senchenko in November 2012.
“Fight! Fight! Fight! It's official,” Hatton posted on X.
He won world titles at welterweight and light-welterweight, with his other two losses coming against pound-for-pound greats Floyd Mayweather Jr. and Manny Pacquiao.
He is the latest former champion to announce a comeback long after retirement in a growing market for such events, with Pacquiao, Mike Tyson, Roy Jones Jr. and Julio César Chávez Jr. all making lucrative returns.
Al Dah, also 46, has not fought since 2021 and only once since 2012. But he was adamant it will be action packed.
“It will not be like the Mike Tyson-Jake Paul fight," Al Dah said. It will be a true fight. True action and I will do my best."
Hatton became a British sporting hero after winning epic battles against Kostya Tszyu, José Luis Castillo and Paulie Malignaggi. They earned him clashes with Mayweather and Pacquiao — but both ended in knockout defeats.
He retired for the first time after his brutal second round knockout defeat against Pacquiao in 2009, but returned more than three years later and fought Ukrainian Senchenko at the Manchester Arena.
That fight also ended in defeat with a ninth-round stoppage that left Hatton in tears.
Since retiring, Hatton has trained other fighters in his Manchester gym.
He said he hoped his fight would lead to more being staged in Dubai.
“There’s a market for it," he said, "and I think it’ll be a sensational evening.”
James Robson is at https://twitter.com/jamesalanrobson
FILE - Ricky Hatton, left, of England, lands a left to the face of Juan Urango, of Colombia, in the seventh round of their IBF Jr. welterweight title boxing match in Las Vegas, Jan. 20, 2007. (AP Photo/Jae C. Hong, File)
WEST PALM BEACH, Fla. (AP) — President Donald Trump on Sunday fired off another warning to the government of Cuba as the close ally of Venezuela braces for potential widespread unrest after Nicolás Maduro was deposed as Venezuela's leader.
Cuba, a major beneficiary of Venezuelan oil, has now been cut off from those shipments as U.S. forces continue to seize tankers in an effort to control the production, refining and global distribution of the country's oil products.
Trump said on social media that Cuba long lived off Venezuelan oil and money and had offered security in return, “BUT NOT ANYMORE!”
“THERE WILL BE NO MORE OIL OR MONEY GOING TO CUBA - ZERO!” Trump said in the post as he spent the weekend at his home in southern Florida. “I strongly suggest they make a deal, BEFORE IT IS TOO LATE.” He did not explain what kind of deal.
The Cuban government said 32 of its military personnel were killed during the American operation last weekend that captured Maduro. The personnel from Cuba’s two main security agencies were in Caracas, the Venezuelan capital, as part of an agreement between Cuba and Venezuela.
“Venezuela doesn’t need protection anymore from the thugs and extortionists who held them hostage for so many years,” Trump said Sunday. “Venezuela now has the United States of America, the most powerful military in the World (by far!), to protect them, and protect them we will.”
Trump also responded to another account’s social media post predicting that his secretary of state, Marco Rubio, will be president of Cuba: “Sounds good to me!” Trump said.
Trump and top administration officials have taken an increasingly aggressive tone toward Cuba, which had been kept economically afloat by Venezuela. Long before Maduro's capture, severe blackouts were sidelining life in Cuba, where people endured long lines at gas stations and supermarkets amid the island’s worst economic crisis in decades.
Trump has said previously that the Cuban economy, battered by years of a U.S. embargo, would slide further with the ouster of Maduro.
“It’s going down,” Trump said of Cuba. “It’s going down for the count.”
A person watches the oil tanker Ocean Mariner, Monrovia, arrive to the bay in Havana, Cuba, Friday, Jan. 9, 2026. (AP Photo/Ramon Espinosa)
President Donald Trump attends a meeting with oil executives in the East Room of the White House, Friday, Jan. 9, 2026, in Washington. (AP Photo/Alex Brandon)
