Career
Born in Millwall, London in 1955, Batten started boxing at the age of 6, taking it up more seriously at the age of 10, and had a successful junior amateur career, winning three national schoolboy titles, two junior American Bar Association titles and an NABC championship, going unbeaten for five and a half years. Two months later he faced Frenchman Gilbert Cohen for the vacant European light middleweight title, losing via a third round knockout. He beat Dave Proud in 1979 before making the third defence of his title in September against Pat Thomas.
Thomas stopped him in the ninth round to take the title.
He then travelled to the United States, where he was based in Chicago for almost two years. There he had a series of fights starting with two easy wins before he was stopped in the first round in May 1982 by Mario Maldonado.
He beat Jeff Madison in September before facing Roberto Duran in November 1982 at the Miami Orange Bowl. Duran took a unanimous decision, Batten taking him the distance despite suffering three broken ribs.
He returned to the United States in August where he stopped journeyman William Page in the firth round.
Back in the United Kingdom he faced Prince Rodney in October 1983 for the British light middleweight title vacated by Herol Graham. Rodney stopped him in the sixth round, and Batten subsequently retired from boxing after tests indicated that he had brain damage. To deal with his brain damage he had speech therapy at drama school and went on to work as an actor, having several small roles in the 1980s and 1990s, appearing in television series such as The Bill and The Detectives and films such as The Krays and Riff-Raff.
He worked as a stand-up comedian and briefly as a doorman and spent three months in prison after an altercation with three customers.
He worked as a boxing trainer and later made a career as a karaoke host and singer.
