Book Closed on Hatton to Retire in 2010

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William Hill have refused to accept any more bets on boxer Ricky Hatton officially retiring during 2010 after receiving a string of calls from punters wishing to bet that the popular former world champion will hang up his gloves imminently.

'We have taken too many calls for it to be entirely coincidental, the vast majority asking for odds that Ricky will quit this week,' said Hill's spokesman Graham Sharpe. 'But we are not entirely gullible and as there is no obvious reason why he should do that we declined to take the bets as we felt the people asking at least believed they knew rather more than we do about Ricky's plans for the future.'

'We've been floored too many times by Rick's fans in the past when they have backed him to win his fights than to take another financial blow to the head in this manner. At the start of the year we were offering 1/2 that Ricky would come back during 2010 and fight again, 6/4 that he would not'.

Hills believe that if Hatton does box on his next big fight could be against Amir Khan and they make the Manchester City fan 6/5 to win that if it happens, with Khan 8/13 favourite and the draw a 25/1 chance.

'Ricky would have every chance against Khan, but we would not be averse to seeing him retire as he owes the fans nothing at all after a terrific career.Too many formerly great boxers have been tempted into one last fight which often ends unfortunately for them' added Sharpe.