Richard John Hatton, MBE (born 6 October 1978) is a British former professional boxer who competed from 1997 to 2012, and has since worked as a boxing promoter and trainer. During his boxing career he held multiple world championships at light-welterweight and one at welterweight. Hatton is ranked by BoxRec as the best British light-welterweight of all time, the third best in Europe, and eleventh best worldwide. In 2005 he was named Fighter of the Year by The Ring magazine, the Boxing Writers Association of America, and ESPN.
In 2000 he won the British light-welterweight title, followed by the WBU light-welterweight title the following year; a record fifteen successful defences of the latter were made from 2001 to 2004. Hatton reached the pinnacle of his career in 2005 when he defeated Kostya Tszyu for the IBF, Ring, and lineal light-welterweight titles. This was followed up later that year with a victory over Carlos Maussa to claim the WBA (Super) light-welterweight title, thereby becoming a unified world champion.