LONDON — Promoter Frank Warren has paid an emotional tribute to the late, great Ricky Hatton, who died at 46 early Sunday.

It's been nearly 28 years since Warren sat down with Manchester boxing trainer Billy Graham for a meeting in which he was told about a talented puncher who had just missed out at the Junior Worlds in Cuba.

On his return home to England, the teenage puncher Richard Hatton was looking to turn professional, and Graham believed Warren would be able to guide him correctly.

As it happened, it would be the start of a relationship which would include 39 fights, 39 wins and the Ring, IBF, and lineal junior welterweight titles.

“I still remember that meeting with Billy Graham,” Warren told The Ring Sunday morning. “He sat down with me and said, ‘I’ve got this kid — and you’ve got to sign him.' We sat down and did the deal.

“He really was just a young kid, a cheeky chappy, and we got on very well, you could tell he had something about him, and it turns out Billy Graham was right.”

Hatton would famously take 30,000 travelling fans to Las Vegas with him, but it was not always thus. His professional debut took place at the Kingsway Leisure Centre in Widnes on Thursday, Sept. 11, 1997 on the undercard of Robin Reid’s WBC world super middleweight title defence against Hacine Cherifi. Hatton needed just one round to see off the journeyman Colin McAuley, 8-48-3 at the time, which delighted his modest following.

“I think he said he sold three or four tickets that night in Widnes, but it just grew and grew. By the time he got to Vegas it was like this mass exodus wasn’t it? Everyone wanted to be there.

“He is probably the most popular fighter to ever come out of the UK. It's probably fair to say he has been the biggest fan favourite ever.”

In the eight years that followed his debut, Hatton collected the Central Area and British junior welterweight titles as well as the now defunct WBU title en route to the greatest night of his career and one that ranks among Warren’s very best as a promoter.

“Kosta Tszyu was the No.1 in the world,” Warren said. “He was a great fighter, and Ricky was a massive, massive underdog.”

But there was magic in the air that night at M.E.N. Arena in Manchester on June, 4, 2005 as Hatton dethroned the king. It was one of those crazy nights all round, given the fight did not start until around 2 a.m. local time to accommodate overseas television audiences. But the snoozing crowd was roused by the stirring performance of their 26-year-old idol, who boxed so well that Tszyu, a pound-for-pound great of his era, retired on his stool after 11 brutal rounds.

“We waited for what we felt was the right moment at that time in his career, and Ricky went and did the business,” Warren said.

“They had been trying to make the fight for a while because they obviously felt that Tszyu would beat him. I just said, ‘No, let’s leave it a little longer.’ We did that. Then at the right time we pressed the button, and Ricky did the rest.

“He was absolutely desperate for that fight for a while, and we got it done in the end.”

By the time his career took him across the Atlantic to Boston and then Las Vegas, the kid from Manchester -- and his box office draw -- was a different beast entirely. “There’s only one Ricky Hatton,” the famous chant declares. There will never be another like him.

“In a nutshell, Ricky Hatton was a man of the people," Warren added. "That’s what he was. He was a man of the people to the fans and they loved him for it. He even supported Man City when they were crap. He connected with the public because he was part of the public. It’s as simple as that.

“Fans always felt very close to him, and he never refused anything or anybody. He was very accommodating to everyone, and he never let anyone down in that regard.

“This news is just dreadfully, dreadfully sad. It is just awful, and the boxing world will rightfully mourn him and remember all those great nights and great fights he gave us.

“Our thoughts are with his family and my condolences go to them. My hope is that they all get some comfort out of the happy memories they have of him.”