For Hatton’s trainer: Bad night, bad view, good career

Monday, Dec. 10, 2007 | 7:09 a.m.

Billy "The Preacher" Graham, who trains Ricky Hatton, nearly revived his own fighting career Saturday night at the MGM Grand Garden Arena.

In the 10th round, Graham threw in a white towel to end Hatton's welterweight bout against Floyd Mayweather because Graham couldn't see what happened to his fighter.

Graham's view was obstructed all night by a, well, rather large official wearing a yellow security jacket.

"I told him what I thought about him," Graham said. "I said he was a big, fat, arrogant bastard. He was doing (bleep) all, know what I mean? What was he doing there? Stopping me from working."

Graham, 52, won 12 of 14 professional fights before retiring 30 years ago.

He became enthralled with the sport when he saw Floyd Patterson skipping rope on the BBC in 1962 and he has a Muhammad Ali tattoo on his right bicep.

Hatton, who might clear as much as $10 million from fighting Mayweather, lost for the first time in 44 fights under Graham's tutelage, and there's never been more than a handshake agreement between them.

Early Sunday, Graham did a live United Kingdom radio interview in a private room.

Wearily, Graham, wearing white shoes, a dark, chalk-pinstriped suit and a gray fedora, with a yellow and red feather on the left side, then sat down for an exclusive chat about his horrible evening.

"I am disgusted," he said, "to be honest with you."

He felt further disgust learning that the overwhelmingly pro-British crowd in the 16,500-seat arena booed and whistled during singer Tyrese's rendition of "The Star-Bangled Banner," drowning out almost every word, before the fighters entered the ring.

"That's quite bad," Graham said. "I don't advocate that. American people have been fantastic. They stopped me in the streets, telling me how they wanted Ricky to win."

Boxing legend Sugar Ray Leonard was appalled by the display on U.S. soil, but 37-year-old London cabdriver Rodney Smith explained that it wasn't a commentary about Americans or America.

"Please, please explain that it was only meant to give Ricky Hatton an edge," Smith said. "It's a football (soccer) thing in England. I knew it would happen and I was embarrassed. It didn't go down well."

Graham's night didn't start well, and it didn't get better.

He also trains Matthew Hatton, Ricky's younger brother, and Graham first encountered problems on Matthew's undercard bout, a victory over Frankie Santos.

The security official and two monitors obstructed Graham's view of the action, and he said he was told to sit on a stool - on the ground, eight feet from the corner.

Trainers usually have a clear, canvas-level view of all the action. Graham knelt on small stairs, with his head at an angle, a few feet from the corner.

"I was horrified," Graham said. "I told them that it had to be sorted out before the big fight."

Although monitors were nudged aside a bit, little had changed when Graham walked back to the blue corner for Ricky's fight.

Graham was livid, yelling at the official, British boxing executives and anyone else who entered his cross hairs.

"Nobody helped me," he said. "British officials didn't sort this out. I said, do your job and let me do mine. And this fat official just looked at me. Didn't acknowledge me whatsoever."

Graham had seen a videotape of the end of the fight and was relieved that referee Joe Cortez would have stopped the action.

Graham also admitted that his perch, at the end of the day, didn't matter. He tried telling Hatton to keep it simple, but Mayweather was too tough.

When Hatton, 29, first started training with Graham 12 years ago, Graham predicted they'd go on a "huge" journey. Another forecast proved just as accurate about Hatton, a natural junior welterweight.

"Ricky is not a welterweight," Graham said 16 months ago. "It's not his proper weight."

On the grandest stage in boxing, at the biggest fight on the planet, Graham said he approached it like any other bout.

Still, he confirmed he'd come a long way from that guy who spent so much time on the dole, and some months picking grapes in France, between his boxing and training careers.

"That's for sure," said Graham, finally smiling. "Yeah, I've got no regrets. Boxing's not very good to most people, but boxing's been very good to me."