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'I was in a state of shock and confusion and loss and many more emotions. Then I called the police and the ambulance.

'But I firmly believe he didn't intend to do it. It's for the coroner to determine, but he had it all to live for.'

Hatton had appeared in good spirits in the days before his death. His final post on Instagram showed him keeping fit in the gym ahead of a highly-anticipated return to the ring in December.

The Mancunian had also filmed an uplifting video in his final week for a child who was the victim of bullying.

He was tragically due to board a flight to Dubai just a day after his passing to sign a contract confirming his comeback to boxing with a bout against Eisa Al Dah.

However alarms were raised after the 46-year-old failed to show at a boxing event for one of his own fighters on Saturday, with Speak finding his lifeless body the following morning.

Hatton's manager said: 'If this was 10 years ago, it wouldn't have been as big a shock as it was.

'I've been with Ricky to the very highest mountains in boxing to the lowest chasm in life.'

'After the [Floyd] Mayweather fight I started drinking a lot more heavily and ultimately I fell out with my parents and that was difficult for me and I did not care if I lived or died,' Hatton said.

'I contemplated suicide many, many times. I started thinking of different ways to get through it and I thought I could drink myself to death.

'So consequently I got more depressed and I ended up taking drugs to enable me to drink more and it was a vicious circle.'

He said: 'It was my first taste of defeat as a pro after 35 fights. Even though it was Floyd Mayweather, I turned up thinking I was going to beat him.

'I became so used to success and then all of a sudden it was like "I'm not used to this".'

A host of the biggest names in boxing and the wider sporting world paid tribute to Hatton following his sad passing.

Boxing promoter Eddie Hearn, who knew the 46-year-old well, described him 'as the last of a rare breed of boxers'.

At the Conor Benn against Chris Eubank press conference, Hearn said: 'I think it was so important to say something,' he said, 'That’s a big platform with a lot of people listening. People need to understand the importance this guy had on British boxing and to people individually.