Hatton: training on Mount Charleston

It was nice that Floyd and Lee were both there with me whilst I did the run. Even though they were in the car driving alongside me...

Ricky Hatton
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Hi everybody, this is Ricky.

Well I have landed in Vegas and the weather is hot - big change from the rain of Manchester. I settled into my house and the team made all the arrangements for training and sparring.

I am staying off the Strip as the air conditioning doesn't agree with me in the hotels. I have a chef coming in every day and he prepares the meals for the team. His name is Rick so he is Rick the chef - not to be confused with Ricky Fatton the boxer. In this instance Ricky Fatton is long gone and my weight is good. In fact I am probably ahead of myself and in terrific condition.

I always take a couple of days to adapt to the change in climate so I take it easy and just do a light run when I get here. So over the weekend I did a little shopping in the mall to kill time. I got a new puzzle (that's an outfit for the after-fight party) and I got five pairs of jeans. I love it here as I can get 33" waist jeans, you don't get that in Manchester.

I did the NUTS TV show over the weekend and my old mate Wayne McCullough came over to co-host the show. It was nice to see him with his wife Cheryl and daughter Wynona. Wayne has been here 15 years now and he loves it. I think I could get used to it the more I come over. It's nice to get away from the Strip and see the real Las Vegas.

Our Matthew arrived on Sunday and it was nice to see a familiar face. He will hopefully be sorting his opponent in the next couple of days.

Monday morning saw the first day of proper training in Vegas. I was up at 5.30am and we went up to Mount Charleston to run. I started with a four-mile run just to acclimatise myself as the air is thinner in the mountains. It was nice that Floyd and Lee were both there with me whilst I did the run. Even though they were in the car driving alongside me...

After the run it was back home for a kip before the gym. I am sparring at a private gym in Las Vegas and I brought in a guy called Timothy Coleman from Baltimore for sparring.

He is a very strong guy and I had a good spar with him. Tim has sparred with Oscar De La Hoya and Paulie Malignaggi in the past. I was pleased with my first spar considering I had been up early and done a four-mile run beforehand.

As the days move on the training has been getting harder. After running at the bottom of Mount Charleston on Monday I started to do some running on the steep hill road. Floyd had me buy some proper boots for running, old school.

The wind is bitter and you need a hat and gloves because the air is so thin it's a killer to breathe. It's amazing to think that we are in the desert. I then had another sparring session with Tim, which went well and once I finish training it's straight down to Starbucks for an Americano.

I spoke with Floyd and Lee and they are both happy with the way my training has gone so far. It's been good learning new things. I think over the last couple of years I hadn't worked on new things. So I am really enjoying this training camp. It's true to say that I am in great shape and things couldn't be better.

I have been keeping up with the football scores and noticed City drew the other day. When I can I like to watch soccer on the TV and evenings are spent watching DVD's in my room, mostly comedies.

I had planned to release my own song in time for Christmas but with all the training I couldn't find the time so I have decided to leave it until the new year. I read I was 14-1 for a number one single at Christmas after Take That and Rick Astley.

I bet Rick is chuffed I pulled out, still he never was one to give up!