They conquered the world together from a gym in a ramshackle old mill in Denton, Greater Manchester, but Ricky Hatton's partnership with Billy Graham, his long-time trainer is over. Officially Graham has retired, although he always said that he would be with Hatton until the boxer no longer needed him. That day has come.

The pair agreed to part after a meeting on Monday that was described as “quite emotional” by Hatton's father, Ray. “Billy admitted he was not going any farther,” Ray Hatton, who is also the boxer's business manager, said. “It's a sad day. He will always be remembered as one of the world's great trainers and to go out after a win in front of 58,000 people in Manchester will be a fitting end to his career.

“Everybody knew Billy had been struggling with a few health problems and it was becoming increasingly painful for him to train Ricky. We knew the bombshell was coming and it was just a question of when.”

Hatton was 17 when he first went to Graham's gym to spar - the trainer thought that he was a natural and a year later Hatton turned professional. With Graham in his corner, Hatton won the IBF, WBA, IBO and Ring magazine light-welterweight titles, as well as the WBA welterweight title. As his fame grew, so did Graham's. Seldom seen without a hat and a cigarette in his hand, Graham developed the body bag, a large padded shield that the trainer would strap to himself to allow Hatton to unload venomous punches at him.

When Hatton beat Kostya Tszyu to win the IBF title in 2003, the Denton gym was packed with promising boxers, but after Hatton split with Frank Warren, the promoter, numbers dwindled. Tensions also grew within the Hatton camp, with Graham becoming an increasingly polarised figure.

After Hatton's defeat by Floyd Mayweather Jr last December, Graham was widely criticised, but Hatton never considered sacking him. However, Graham was becoming less able to deal with Hatton's hardcore training. He needed injections to numb his hands and Lee Beard was brought in to take Hatton's pad work. Graham, though, was in the corner in May when Hatton faced Juan Lazcano in front of a postwar British record attendance at the City of Manchester Stadium.Hatton's brother, Matthew, the only other boxer still trained by Graham, left the camp after his defeat by Craig Watson for the Commonwealth welterweight title on the undercard.

There has been talk that Mayweather's estranged father, Floyd Sr, could be brought in as Hatton's new trainer, but that would seem improbable because Hatton, at 29, is not open to a significant overhaul of his technique and would not want to move his training base away from Manchester. More likely is that Beard will become Hatton's head trainer, assisted by Bobby Rimmer, Graham's former assistant, who has a gym in nearby Stalybridge.

Hatton's next bout is against Paulie Malignaggi at the MGM Grand in Las Vegas on November 22. Graham's final corner duties will be more low-key. On Friday, in Watford, Hertfordshire, he will fulfil a long-time promise to be chief second to Ojay Abrahams, a journeyman middleweight, who will be having his 100th and final bout and bidding for his first win in five years.

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