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December 1998
Each month we bring you a selection of articles from the current and past issues of BOXING MONTHLY. To buy the magazine, see our subscription or back issues pages, or use our world distribution map to find a news-stand copy. Why not use our Interactive Forum to express your own boxing comments and opinions!
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THE LOW POINT
Amidst the nightmare, there was a fight. But was Prince Naseem Hamed's curious behaviour in and around his WBO title defence against Wayne McCullough the worst showing of his career? GLYN LEACH reports from Atlantic City |
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DISTANCE FIGHT: in more ways than one: not only did Hamed go the full
route for the first time since 1994, but he surprised everyone by
boxing at range rather than blasting
- Get Big Pic In all honesty, there wasn't much of a fight to report from Atlantic City on 31
October. Having kicked his way through that tacky, reprehensible graveyard, and after
surprising challenger Wayne McCullough with a sneak attack in the opening moments of round
one, Prince Naseem Hamed, World Boxing Organisation featherweight champion, slipped into
auto-pilot. The first six minutes of his unanimous decision victory were spent posing, in the third
round he made his strongest effort to remove the challenger, and when that didn't happen
for him Hamed danced and toyed with McCullough for the remainder of the fight. "Amateurish" was the word of description I heard most often from other
press-row occupants who clearly were not pleased with the southpaw superstar's
contribution - but then they hadn't been all week. And in one sense I had to agree with
them; the last time I saw Hamed fight like this was the last time he shared a card with
Danny Romero. That was in July 1990, when Hamed captained an England youth squad in an
amateur international against a USA junior team featuring Romero at Heathrow. At the cavernous old Boardwalk Convention Center on Halloween Eve, Hamed turned back
the clock; the devastating puncher we have become accustomed to resembled the non-hitter -
only 18 KOs from 62 wins - of Hamed's youth. Whether this makes Hamed
"amateurish" is open to debate; given the numerous problems he had in the run-in
to this fight, catalogued elsewhere, this might well have been the most professional
performance of his career. But few will appreciate it as such. If there was a moral victor, it was McCullough. Only Michael Katz of the New York Daily
News had predicted that the challenger would last the distance; most had no real argument
with Hamed when he predicted that the Irishman would be stopped at the two minutes, 28
seconds mark of round three - that seemed entirely feasible. And many had agreed with
Hamed's "corner adviser", Brendan Ingle, who believed that McCullough's style
was made for Hamed and that it could all be over inside the opening three minutes. McCullough's wife and manager, Cheryl, appeared to be expecting the worst. Standing
behind her husband's corner, she looked as white as a ghost; even whiter than the whitest
white man on the planet, Manchester light-welter prospect Ricky Hatton, whose impressive
body hooking brought him another first-round win on the undercard. People were genuinely concerned for Mrs McCullough, who looked as though she might
faint through anticipation of the fate that was about to befall the father of her baby
daughter, Wynona. "I'm okay," mouthed Cheryl before the opening bout. Plainly
she was not. Even when Wayne returned to his corner at the end of round three, his arms raised in
triumph at having survived Hamed's prediction, his wife's applause seemed only
half-hearted. But by the halfway stage she was pumping her fists in the air and cheering
as much as any of the thousands of Irish people in the arena. At no point did McCullough
look as though he might win the fight, but neither did it seem likely he would be
seriously hurt. Clearly Hamed's mind was not on the job. If he couldn't take McCullough out with one of
his big, slashing uppercuts, then he couldn't be bothered to take him out at all, it
seemed. He had no interest in working for openings, nor was he inclined to punch to the
body - a terrible oversight when one recalls how McCullough virtually doubled over in pain
when Daniel Zaragoza dug a right-hander into his ribs during the Ulsterman's January 1997
losing challenge to the then World Boxing Council super bantam champ. And there was nothing that Brendan Ingle could do to try and instil some focus into the
champion. The one-minute breaks between rounds were utterly demeaning to the veteran
trainer. Not only had he been demoted, with his sons John and Dominic having been handed
the official reigns, but Ingle soon came to realise how meaningless was his new role as
"corner adviser"; Hamed made an unnecessarily cruel show of how little Ingle's
reading of the fight meant to him, staring into space as the Sheffield boxing guru made
his points and even pushing Ingle away at one stage. It was ugly to watch. To my mind, it was Hamed's treatment of the man who developed him that most exemplified
his appalling attitude for which he has been roundly criticised in Atlantic City, not a
few spats with journalists. Ingle did not deserve to be shown such disrespect, disdain
even, and I'd be surprised if he were willing to work with Hamed again. Ingle's pride has
been battered enough and for this, if not for anything else, Hamed should be ashamed of
himself. McCullough, though, had reason to be proud when the final bell rang. Lasting the
distance with Hamed is something that only Peter Buckley, in a November 1992 six-rounder,
and Vincenzo Belcastro had achieved previously. The former WBC bantamweight titleholder
had been thoroughly unimpressive in bouts outside that weight class, including two
kitten-weak points wins this year, one over Juan Polo Perez, who had been taken out in two
by Hamed in July 1995. However, his pleas for a rematch should be ignored. Sure, he broke Hamed's long
knockout streak, dating back 18 fights to the commanding unanimous decision over Belcastro
for the European bantamweight title in May 1995. And yes, by virtue of the fact that he
kept coming forward, whilst Hamed kept backing off, McCullough did make the fight. But the challenger was so concerned with not being caught by one of Hamed's bombs,
preoccupied with keeping his gloves glued to the sides of his face to form a watertight
guard, that McCullough simply was not relaxed enough to punch with any accuracy; and when
a fighter lacks one-punch KO capability, as does McCullough (14 stoppage wins from 22,
none above bantamweight, against the one loss to Zaragoza, none), that is a major minus
point. The so-called computer punch-counters had him throwing 740 punches to Hamed's 742, but
Hamed landed 340 while the Irishman connected with exactly half that amount. Those sort of
figures do not dethrone champions. However, rather than Hamed finishing McCullough's career as he had promised he would
do, allowing McCullough to last the distance - for that is what I believe Hamed did - has
in fact breathed fresh life into it. The Las Vegas-based, Belfast-born former Olympian is
now a marketable commodity once more and announced that his future would be in the super
bantam division. Hamed, though, has done his reputation no good whatsoever. The third fight of his deal
with American subscription giants Home Box Office, his second on American soil, was a huge
disappointment. Hamed's viewing figures for the Kevin Kelley and Wilfredo Vazquez fights
had impressed the network, and this fight brought HBO's best ratings of the year for a
non-heavyweight, non-pay-per-view fight, knocking Oscar De La Hoya vs Patrick Charpentier
into second place. But network chief Seth Abraham was cautious afterwards, stating that
the impact of this performance would not be felt until the viewing figures for Hamed's
next fight became known. Those figures will be revealing indeed. HBO once more spent large amounts on publicising Hamed, who they believe has the
potential to be absolutely massive in America. The network took out full-page colour
adverts in the New York Times and Rolling Stone magazine, with smaller ads elsewhere and
constant TV trailers. Their efforts cannot be faulted and were deserving of a little more
co-operation from the subject of their publicity campaign. But still there was a worryingly small crowd in the arena. Of the 8,138 in attendance,
it appeared that around a third of that number were McCullough supporters, 1,000 of whom
had made the trip from Ireland. Had Hamed been fighting someone without McCullough's fan
base, say a Puerto Rican such as his mandatory contender Angel Vasquez, who maintained his
unbeaten run on the undercard, the huge old venue might have been embarrassingly empty. It seems to me that America is unsure what to make of Hamed. I get the impression that
HBO would like nothing better than to wheel him out on nights such as this, Halloween, and
turn his fights into theme evenings. There was a furore over the initial plan to have Hamed enter the arena through a
graveyard resplendent with tombstones marked with the names of his championship opponents.
And the outrage expressed by the British press contingent was totally justified. The idea
really was in the worst possible taste. This is boxing, not wrestling, where the likes of
the Undertaker can revel in death-like imagery. In boxing, people do die. Initially, HBO's Lou DiBella and Larry Merchant tried to defend the plan. "It's
Halloween," they offered, as though this ostensibly American tradition erased the
deaths of too many fighters over the years. "Humour obviously does not cross the
Atlantic," sneered Merchant who appeared to be feeling rather dismissive about it all
when initially he was questioned on the subject, as though he were replying to criticism
about his choice of tie for a broadcast. The Yanks and the Brits really were speaking
different languages. But death bridges all chasms and thankfully, particularly for the
surviving families of fighters who have given their lives for this brutal sport, HBO
quickly relented after being challenged over their plans. To give the American TV men the benefit of the doubt, British boxing, as I pointed out
in a June column, has in recent years had an abnormally high percentage of serious brain
injuries compared with the rest of the world. Consequently, the British boxing fraternity
may be more sensitive to the issue than our colleagues overseas. But none of us who make
our livings from the sport should ever forget that boxing is a life-or-death business.
Hopefully this lesson has been learned and such tasteless hype tactics will not be
considered in future. Further evidence of the differences between British and American perspectives came when
I spoke to HBO commentator Jim Lampley after the fight. When I asked him whether he felt
HBO had got value for money, he assumed I was talking about the firework display that
heralded Hamed's entrance. I cut the conversation short rather sharply. There didn't seem
much point in continuing after that. But continue is what the Hamed roadshow will do, although perhaps in a slightly
different form . His next date, should he elect to accept it, is scheduled for early March
in Manchester; the February slot he was offered initially has now been snapped up by the
rescheduled De La Hoya-Quartey fight and it has been widely publicised that the March date
will be used primarily as an advert for the Lennox Lewis-Evander Holyfield showdown the
following weekend, on 13 March. This might not be to the liking of one with Hamed's ego.
But beggars can't be choosers and, unfortunately, despite what anybody might claim to the
contrary, there is no way that Hamed can be in as strong a position after this fight as he
was before it. PRESS ANTI-REACTION JOHN DILLON, Daily Mirror: "The inescapable conclusion is that he is not nearly as
good as he - and the tiny army of sycophantic cheerleaders surrounding him - thinks he is.
He is obviously going backwards. He has to stop showing off, get back to basics and start
fighting again rather than getting caught up in the kind of confusion and mania that
reigned here all week." JEFF POWELL, Daily Mail: "The HBO cable network is looking for a venue in London
early next March to use a Naseem fight as a vehicle to drum up customers for
Lewis-Holyfield. For a 24-year-old who regards himself as a legend in his short lifetime,
this will be difficult to swallow. But that is how far the mighty Prince has fallen in the
course of his disappointing attempt to convince the hardened U.S. boxing community of his
genius." IAN CHADBAND, Evening Standard: "If Hamed is going to scream the odds about what
mayhem he will wreak while conquering America, then he has to accept the barbs when he
fails to deliver as miserably as he did in this, the 11th and least satisfying defence of
his WBO featherweight crown." KEN JONES, The Independent: "The truth about Hamed is that he has learned very
little about the fundamentals of boxing and lacks the humility to seek improvement." KEVIN FRANCIS, The Star: "Hamed completely failed to convince an
increasingly-sceptical American audience that he IS as great as he makes himself out to
be. He did not do himself any justice in a fight where a convincing victory for his
American TV paymasters was the order of the day." BOB MEE, Independent On Sunday: "This year we have seen what a bad press can do to
a man as revered as Will Carling once was. I would not want Hamed to bite his tongue and
hide his feelings every moment of the day, but the lack of professionalism he showed in
Atlantic City portrayed him as a man with little or no compassion for those outside his
immediate family and sycophantic entourage. And that's a shame because it's probably not
the case." SRIKUMAR SEN, The Times: "It seemed that no one in the Hamed camp had told him
that he had not exactly been a big hit, but when he reads the papers he will not find
their remarks complimentary. There were many ringsiders who thought the scoring of the
judges was far too generous. Some even thought McCullough had done enough to win." PAUL HAYWARD, The Telegraph: "They spent $70,000 on a mock graveyard for Naseem
Hamed to dance through on his way to the ring. On this evidence they could use it to bury
the idea that he is on an inexorable fox-trot to greatness. From the outset, it was the
most wretchedly fraught and chaotic boxing event many of us present have ever
attended." COLIN HART, The Sun: "Down the years it has been my privilege and pleasure to
travel with men like Ken Buchanan, John Conteh, Joe Bugner, Frank Bruno, Lloyd Honeyghan,
Alan Minter, Billy Schwer and the late Johnny Owen, who all fought for world titles in
America. You could not get a more diverse bunch. Most of them lost, but all were
magnificent ambassadors for Britain. Now I know exactly what trainer Brendan Ingle meant
when he described Naz as obnoxious and abusive in his recently published book." JOHN RAWLING, The Guardian: "It was hard to imagine anyone outside the Sheffield
narcissist's immediate family and friends thinking he had done anything to enhance his
reputation on either side of the Atlantic. Alienating newspaper reporters is one thing,
but provoking the displeasure of the companies who televise his contests is another
example of an out-of-control ego which now seems to run unchecked." JAMES LAWTON, The Express: "The truth is Naseem's 'style' has become not so much
an adornment as a smoke screen - one that is frankly no longer working. [He] said he had
run only in the way of his heroes Muhammad Ali and Sugar Ray Leonard. It was an unhappy
choice of names. Both men cannot walk in an American street without an outpouring of
respect. They grow bigger in their retirement. Naseem, on the other hand, shrivels at what
should be the prime of his career." |
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