Manchester and trained at the Sale West ABC (Racecourse Estate). He was educated at Hattersley High School. His grandfather and his father both played Football for Rochdale and Hatton had a trial for the youth team. He found a local boxing club in Hyde to train at. His entrance music is the Manchester City club song "Blue Moon", as performed by the band "Supra." Aged 14, Hatton was taken by his uncles Ged and Paul to Manchester United's Old Trafford stadium to watch the second fight between Nigel Benn and Chris Eubank. He joined the family carpet business on leaving school, but after he cut four of his fingers with a Stanley knife, his father made him a salesman to prevent him from losing his fingers. Amateur career Hatton had a short amateur career, in which he won seven British titles and represented his country at the 1996 AIBA Youth World Boxing Championships. His elimination in the semi-finals caused controversy. Four of the five judges awarded the contest to Hatton, but under the scoring rules Hatton was defeated as the fifth judge gave the match to Hatton's opponent by 16 points. The judge was later found to have accepted a bribe, and disillusioned with the amateur governing bodies, Hatton turned professional, aged 18. Hatton was based at Billy "The Preacher" Graham's gym in Moss Side, where fellow boxers included Carl Thompson and Michael Gomez. Amateur highlights ABA national junior champion (class C) – light-welterweight (1994) ABA national junior champion (class A) – light-welterweight (1995, 1996) ABA national junior champion (class B) – light-welterweight (1997) ABA national champion – light-welterweight (1997) Professional career Light-welterweight Early career Hatton made his professional debut on 11 September 1997 against Colin McAuley in Widnes at Kingsway Leisure Centre. Hatton won by a technical knockout (TKO) in first round, while in his second fight he boxed at Madison Square Garden in New York, as part of the undercard to Naseem Hamed vs. Kevin Kelley. Soon he was fighting on the undercard of contests involving major British boxers, such as the two WBO cruiserweight title fights between Carl Thompson and Chris Eubank in 1998. In 1999 the British Boxing Writers' Club named Hatton their Young Boxer of the Year. His first international title came in May 1999, when he defeated Dillon Carew for the WBO inter-continental light-welterweight title. Hatton's next four fights after gaining the WBO inter-continental