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April 1999
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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A FAMILY AFFAIR
There have been changes aplenty around Prince Naseem Hamed following last October's testy time in Atlantic City. And now the new regime are ready to test the water. GLYN LEACH takes a look at the background to 10th April's WBO featherweight title defence against Paul Ingle in Manchester. |
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HARD AT IT: but Hamed has a new trainer in the relatively
untried Oscar Suarez
- Get Big Pic Bridges burned, built and rebuilt, the Prince Naseem Hamed roadshow returns to Britain
on 10 April, when the World Boxing Organisation featherweight champion defends his title
for the 13th time against Scarborough's Paul Ingle, who will need all the luck he can find
in the MEN arena, Manchester. Hamed's last appearance, the 12-round decision over Wayne McCullough last October,
turned out to be one of the most controversial boxing events in recent times. Hamed went
to war with everyone in Atlantic City, it seemed, aside from McCullough. The atmosphere
surrounding the fight stank and the Prince's eventual performance was badly received by a
media with whom the Prince fought bitterly, gloves off. While those "in the know" were aware of the stresses surrounding that
promotion, nobody could have predicted quite what would follow. Hamed and his family, who were growing increasingly influential in his career, were
flexing their muscles. And the end result was a cutting of ties with Frank Warren, the
promoter who had taken Hamed to the title, and Brendan Ingle, the trainer/manager who had
guided the Yorkshireman of Yemeni descent from an early age. The Hameds - Naz and brothers
Riath and Nabeel - were ready to go it alone. One of their first moves on returning to Britain was to get the media back on-side.
Hamed had infamously berated one senior writer publicly in Atlantic City and also reduced
a TV broadcaster to tears. Sensibly and no doubt at the suggestion of the fighter's many
sponsors, including the sportswear giant adidas, the Hamed clan invited the offended
parties, plus a few more - the Prince didn't have many kind words for anyone while in the
States - to a private lunch in London, with the understanding that the media were not to
report goings on. All went well, apologies and explanations were made and accepted. Stage two was the split with Warren, with whom undefeated Hamed had won each of his
professional titles - European bantam, WBC International super bantam, WBO and, for two
fights, IBF feather. This was not too difficult an operation on a strategic level as
Warren's contract with the Prince was up for renewal at that time. And renewed it was not.
Then there was the matter of Brendan Ingle, no relation to this month's challenger. If all
had seemed rosy in the relationship with Warren prior to the split, it was common
knowledge that the Hamed clan and the Sheffield guru did not see eye to eye. Ingle's cut
from Naz's purses had decreased proportionately as the amounts had increased in size. But
the release of the book "The Paddy and the Prince", in which Ingle was openly
critical of the Hameds, was the final straw for the fighter and his family. For the McCullough fight, Ingle was demoted to the role of "corner adviser", and
his sons John and Dominic were given greater responsibility. And the way in which the
veteran trainer was treated during that contest - Ingle's "advice" definitely was not
required and he was made well aware of the fact - hammered the final nail in that particular
coffin. Ingle waved them bye bye, with only one or two of his fingers extended. The final job for the Hameds was to renegotiate their deal with the American TV giant
Home Box Office, who also had received a variety of snubs, even if only in the form of
non-co-operation, in New Jersey. Had Naz pasted McCullough out of sight, they might have
forgiven him. But a 12-round bore against a "faded" former bantam champ was not
what they expected from their six-fight, $12 million investment. However, the deck was loaded in the Hameds' favour - not even Oscar De La Hoya had
given the TV men better viewing figures and with boxing desperately light on star quality,
HBO listened with favourable ears. The result was a contract which gave them virtual
worldwide control of the Prince. Everyone the Hameds needed to be happy was happy. All in all, the coup masterminded by Naz's oldest brother, Riath, was fantastically
successful. Any blood shed certainly contained no Yemeni corpuscles. Riath wanted greater
control for his brother and he got it. Installed as Naz's new trainer is a New
Jersey-based Puerto Rican, Oscar Suarez. And don't be embarrassed to ask "Oscar
who?" Suarez is something of a mystery. The link, it seems, was forged by the
trainer's relationship with the distinctly average American-based Arab, Omar Sheika. But
when Steve Lott, a student of the sport who works with Sheika's former manager, Bill
Cayton, was asked about Suarez by our own Steve Farhood, Lott replied along the lines that
Suarez "might have been Sheika's cut man". Might have been? Thoughts of the old
adage regarding multi-million dollar fighter planes and 10 cent control towers come to
mind. But the Hameds are happy with Senor Suarez, who has been working with the WBO champ at
Glyn Rhodes's gym in Sheffield. Naz has claimed that he's learned more in his time with
Suarez than he ever had previously. And while that blatant exaggeration may have been
little more than a thinly disguised attack on Brendan Ingle, the chances are that, after
the best part of 20 years, Hamed needed a change in his training regime in order to breath
fresh life into his career. Most definitely, Naz had looked stale in recent fights. Maybe
now he can go on to achieve everything that he so often has promised. But, it must be
said, the breaking up of successful fighter-trainer relationships do not generally result
in better performances, over a prolonged stretch of time, in the ring. Time will tell. While firmly in control of their own destinies, the Hameds realised they would still
need a promoter to "get his hands dirty" come fight night - the nuts and bolts
of putting on a major show are hard to put in place, even for the most inventive business
minds. And so it was back to square one and Barry Hearn, the Matchroom boss who promoted
the very first professional outings of the Prince. But cannily, the Hameds have employed Hearn for a fee far smaller than the general
promoter's cut. And while he complains, in an accompanying article to this piece, that he
has never been off the scene, a union with the Hameds, no matter how short-lived it might
transpire to be, offers Hearn the chance to return to the big stage that once was his when
Chris Eubank was at the peak of his drawing powers. A good deal is one that sees everyone
win, and the Hamed-Hearn agreement comfortably meets those requirements. Which brings us to Ingle, Paul, challenger voluntary and outside the WBO top 10
(although that may well change by fight time). Ingle's career, attitude and preparations
are catalogued on pages 28-29. And while it seems unfair to dismiss his chances of victory
out of hand, those chances do not seem great. He will do well to last four rounds. And if
that seems like a rather brief, perfunctory preview, then you don't realise quite how hard
Hamed hits. And Ingle soon will. Styles make fights but big bombs stop them and it appears
to me that the challenger could find himself out of his depth in this fight. For
spectacle's sake, let's hope that's not the case. The truth of this situation is that the Hameds are experimenting in a low-risk manner.
Manchester has always come out for the Prince; Hearn might be out of practice, but he's
promoted so many major events that one thinks of him as a man who has fallen off his bike
but who will prove himself still to be a damned good rider once he gets back on; only
Suarez appears to be a risk, but then Naz, providing he's in good shape, will not be
required to engage in a tactical battle on this occasion. Naseem Hamed, 32-0, 29 KOs -
print it now. All in all, the new regime have set things up rather nicely on this occasion. Things
might be tougher for them in the future, but they have shown sense and humility that their
critics thought beyond them by electing to walk before they can run. They realise that
resentful eyes will be watching to see them blow it, but whatever the future holds, they
will not fall at the first hurdle. And the first step is often the hardest. |
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