BILLY Graham will quit boxing once the careers of his three current fighters are over.

The man who guided Ricky Hatton and Carl Thompson to world title glory to make him one of Britain's most successful trainers, will walk away from the sport for good once the three fighters he currently handles - Ricky and Matthew Hatton, and Matthew Macklin - call time on the fight game.

Graham, himself a former professional boxer, has shelled out his entire purse on a big, secluded house in the Georgia woods, to be used as a training camp and also as an escape from the boxing "rat race".

"I am getting out of it because I have had a bellyful," said 51-year-old Graham, who is at the heart of another storm with promoter Frank Warren, who accused him of not protecting the interests of Macklin in his recent British title fight with Jamie Moore.

"I love boxing, and I love my fighters, and I still have plenty of challenges ahead of me with Ricky and the two Matthews. But I am taking on no more fighters after those three, and when they are finished, so am I."

Ricky Hatton fights Juan Urango in Atlanta - coincidentally only half an hour from Graham's hew house - on January 13 for the IBF light-welterweight title. Brother Matthew fights tomorrow night in Sheffield and is in line for a British title shot early in the new year and Graham believes Macklin will bounce back stronger than ever despite his recent loss to Moore.

Rat race

"If I had my way, Ricky would fight Urango, then Jose Luis Castillo and then take the fight we have always wanted - Floyd Mayweather. That would be the way to finish his career," said Graham, originally from Salford.

"Macklin will get up there quickly and generally fighters don't stay at the top for too long, so I don't think it will be too long before I walk away. I want out of the rat race.

"There is still a lot of work to do with Ricky's career, Matthew Hatton's career is taking shape nicely now, and we have massive plans for Matt Macklin, so there is still a way to go.

"I am one of very few, fortunate people to whom the sport has been good. Mine is a success story.

"I will miss the fights, and being in the gym, and the glory, and the drama, but I won't miss certain people on the Manchester boxing scene, or Frank Warren and Sports Network, and all the mither that goes with it."

Graham has blasted back at accusations from Warren that he should have pulled Macklin out of his recent, epic fight against Moore last month.

The trainer has reacted angrily to comments by Warren - with whom he has crossed swords in the past - in the promoter's Sunday newspaper column and on the Sports Network website.

Crashing

Macklin was flattened by a crashing right hand in the tenth round of a British light-middleweight title fight which had swung one way and then the other. He lay unconscious, and needed oxygen in the ring and a night in hospital, but a brain scan has revealed no lasting damage.

Warren claimed that Graham had risked the boxer's career by not throwing in the towel in the previous round, and suggested that Macklin should "ditch" him.

Graham has responded by consulting a solicitor, and by defending himself vigorously against the accusations.

Graham said: "The reason I didn't pull Matthew out is because BOTH fighters were on the verge of getting beat. I am an experienced trainer and have been in a lot of fights like that. I have been involved in some of the best fights in recent years, like Carl Thompson's two fights with Chris Eubank, Shea O'Neary v Andy Holligan, Michael Brodie v Neil Swain and Ricky Hatton v Kostya Tszyu, of course.

"You don't have long to make a decision and if I had known Matthew was going to get knocked out in the next round of course I would have pulled him out, but I haven't got a crystal ball.

"I can make a better educated guess than most and I take real offence to what Warren is saying.

"I am close to my fighters and will defend them against promoters, managers, anybody - if they are in the right. I am behind them 100 per cent.

"Me and Matthew are incredibly close. I consider him a really great friend, and I consider his family to be my friends as well.

"I am more convinced than ever that he will make it right to the top. You can't take anything away from Jamie or his trainer Oliver Harrison, two people for whom I have the greatest respect, but I do believe that is the only time they will get in the ring with Matthew and win.

"It was a brutal fight, and boxing gets that way sometimes. Boxers pay me to win fights and generally it is money well spent.

"The mistake Matthew made in that fight was one of the most common mistakes young fighters make in their first title shot, and it is the most noble mistake that fighters make.

"He was too brave for his own good. But the fight had gone too far down the line and he couldn't change.

Accusation

Warren has claimed that Graham had "come to prominence" as Hatton's trainer, but Graham hit back at that as well: "I was already one of the best trainers in the country before Ricky came to me," he said.

"Before Ricky, I took fighters to World, British, European and Commonwealth titles. In fact the only belt I hadn't won as a trainer was an area title - and Ricky won one for me."

There was also an accusation that Graham "has been known to go out on two or three day benders with his fighters," which brought astonished laughter from Graham.

"I have not been out in a pub in England for years - I am virtually a recluse," he said. "The last time I was out in a pub with one of my fighters was at a fancy-dress party following one of Ricky's fights a few years ago, and even then I went home after half an hour because, since I became deaf in one ear, all those people become too much for me."

Now Graham will retreat from the bright lights, and the blood, sweat and pain of the boxing ring to a world of snakes, lizards and alligators, the other great passion of his life.

He intends to spend most of his time in the woods and swamps around his new Georgia home, seeking the reptiles which he loves.

"The house is huge, set in its own five acres, and with access to the neighbours' woods as well," said Graham, who has a collection of reptiles at his Mossley home and even has an iguana named Liston in a tank at his Denton gym.

"There are rattlesnakes, water moccasins, lizards and turtles everywhere, so I will get to do something I have enjoyed doing since I was a kid.

"I bought the house with cash from the winnings in Ricky's last fight against Luis Collazo."

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