IS there another sport out there more liable to leave its former heroes as emotional punch bags than boxing? The history of the noble art is littered with greats who never quite adjusted to life outside the ring and Ricky Hatton might just be the case in point.

The self-styled Hit Man, a holder of multiple world titles at both welterweight and light welterweight, is a promoter and a trainer these days, but that hasn't stopped him making some unfortunate headlines of his own in recent times. In the last few weeks, tabloid newspapers have been carrying allegations of him brawling with fellow holiday makers in an Irish bar in Tenerife, his personal life in turmoil after the break-up of his long-term relationship with his fiancee Jennifer Dooley.

Even his trip to Glasgow this week didn't entirely avoid the headlines - there were glimpses of his partying lifestyle when he was spotted out singing Karaoke at a gay bar in the city, although that is hardly a crime. But in town ostensibly to promote the world title fight at the SSE Hydro on October 7 between his Belarusian protege Kiryl Relikh and Scotland's own Ricky Burns, Hatton admitted he has had "a bad few weeks" but the stories were blown out of proportion and he can "look himself in the mirror".

While nothing will replace the buzz of the big title fights which saw him pit his wits against greats such as Kostya Tzuyu, Floyd Mayweather and Manny Pacquaio, helping train and promote other talented young fighters like the dangerous Relikh was the next best thing.

"It hurts, said Hatton when it comes to reading negative headlines in the paper. "I've not fhad the greatest few weeks. I've recently split up with my missus and the paper articles are blown up totally out of proportion. If anybody knows me, I'm not a bully. I have time for everybody and this is a little bit disappointing because I've worked so hard for my reputation. But I can look in the mirror and there are not many people who can say a bad word about me. I've just had a bit of a hard time with my relationship break-up.

"Nothing will replace the actual fighting itself but this is the next best thing," he insisted. "Boxing gave me such a wonderful life for me and my family and the reason I went into promoting and training was to try and give these kids the same life I've got. It's a different type of stress but no less painful. But when I hear fighter say they can pay their house off now because they have been successful, that's why I went into it.

"I enjoy the training and I have a good team around me who promote the fighters. I've got Lucas Brown who won the world heavyweight championship and I've got Relikh and I train Sergey Rabchenko who is world ranked so I've got a good stable. I don't have the machine behind me like a Sky but I work with a lot of top people in the business and I've learned from the best and anybody in the stable knows they're getting good advice."

While he never fought in Scotland, Hatton speaks warmly of the place. The Relikh-Burns fight sees him in the same position as he was back in 2003, when as a training partner of Michael Gomez at Billy Graham's gym, he widely predicted that the Englishman would defeat Alex Arthur, a premonition which came through when Gomez knocked out Arthur in the fifth round of a British and Inter Continental title fight at a sell-out Meadowbank Arena. He sees a bit of himself in Relikh, if not in terms of fight style, then in the fact that he is a young man in a hurry.

"When the fight was made people probably thought 'Who's Kiryl Relikh?' but he's the real deal," said Hatton. "He's also a man in a hurry. He says he's not just going to be a world champion, he's going to be a superstar. So he doesn't lack confidence. He's got a real nasty streak, even when he's in the gym sparring and he says to me to get in the ring with him and he'll beat me up. But he's a lovely kid.

"Style wise he doesn't remind me of Ricky Hatton, but he does mentality-wise," he added. "When I fought Kostya Tszyu, for example, people didn't share the enthusiasm that Billy and I had. I was adamant I was going to be a world champion and he's the same. The important things is his belief."

"The Scots are down to earth passionate people and I've got friends here - I love the place. But the last time I came here in a ring was when Gomez beat Arthur and I found myself up against one of the heroes and the same thing is going to happen with this one. But I hope I still have the same amount of fans up here afterwards. My proudest achievement was having the fan base I did because of the person I was and I think Ricky's the same."

While Hatton admits that every so often he finds one of those fights on catch up, the one he cannot watch again is his 2007 superfight with Floyd Mayweather. Controversially penalised by a point early in the contest for punches thrown against the back of the head, the fight was eventually stopped in Mayweather's favour in the tenth round.

"Sky still show the big fights and I watched the one with Tszyu the other day," said Hatton. "But I'll never watch the Mayweather fight again. It was on the other day but I turned it off. It really pains me. I don't think they gave me a fair crack of the whip that day. I'm not saying I would have won anyway. But they stitched me up like a kipper. The Las Vegas referee was for Mayweather and I can't watch it because it infuriates me. The Mayweather occasion was great for Brits but I don't think the Americans liked it. Who does this Brit think he is bringing 30,000 to this country? Why did Mayweather only fight in Vegas? He was great for box office but I think they stitched me up."