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May 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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IFS, BUTS, MAYBES
What to make of Naseem Hamed's 11th-round stoppage of Paul Ingle? Has the Prince peaked or is he about to emerge as a better fighter? GLYN LEACH reports |
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IN TIME: hand-injury hampered Hamed but he got there in the end
- Get Big Pic If Naseem Hamed is not in decline as a fighter, then the 25-year-old World Boxing
Organisation featherweight champion has certainly been in a slump. Worse still, his career
is now threatened by a recurring injury to his left hand that has hampered his performance
for the second fight in succession. Last Halloween in Atlantic City, Hamed was able to coast through 12 dull but safe
rounds against Wayne McCullough after hurting his left - traditionally the power purveyor
of a southpaw - early in the fight. And now, at the MEN Arena in Manchester on 10 April,
the injury has revealed itself to be a serious long-term threat. Hamed seemed in control in the early stages of his 12th defence, against
Scarborough's Paul Ingle. Ingle, an unbeaten former British, European and
Commonwealth champion, was floored in the first and sixth rounds, by head and body shots
respectively. But then, says Hamed, his hand began hurting and his effectiveness was
reduced to the point where Ingle began to take the initiative. Hamed, with no meaningful
deterrent to ward off his hyperactive, compact challenger, had to save himself with a
knockout punch - delivered by the ailing hand - in the 11th round. "Going out for that final round it was anyone's fight," claimed
Ingle's manager, Frank Maloney. "Whoever landed first was going to win.
Unfortunately we lost." The Londoner wasn't far wrong in his assessment. "Around the sixth my left hand really began to hurt," said the champion
afterwards. "I just wanted to throw it, but I couldn't. This is doing my head in
- I've got to get it sorted out." Indeed. Hand injuries are the bane of boxing's big punchers and Hamed proved that, if
nothing else, he still belongs in that category. This was his 29th stoppage win in 32
unbeaten fights. But it is impossible to ignore the flaws that have developed in this
prodigiously talented Yorkshireman who has promised, verbally and in reality, to deliver
so much. Without wishing to denigrate the challenger's wonderful effort, future
boxing legends should not have life-and-death struggles with the likes of Ingle, which is
what this fight was developing into in the later stages. Hamed may be slipping. The evidence of his last four fights, starting with the
up-and-downer against Kevin Kelley in December 1997, suggests that things from now on will
be harder for Hamed. A multi-millionaire already, he may only just be about to start
sweating for that money. To his credit, Hamed has trained hard for his last two contests and has made the weight
with ease. Perhaps too much so, however. There is a distinct possibility that Hamed has
overtrained, resulting in two of the least satisfying performances of his career. How
else, one wonders, could he train for 10 weeks and yet still run out of gas? And worryingly for the champion, the aura of Hamed the all-conquering destroyer is all
but gone. Ingle baited him at the end of rounds, goading the goader. And his psychological
warfare had began earlier in the evening, when Ingle vacated the ring - as he had promised
he would - if Hamed's entrance lasted longer than six minutes Which, of course, it
did, doppelgangers, Cadillac, firework display and all, with a bit of rapping thrown in
for good measure this time. It was Hamed whose head was toyed with on this occasion. One thinks of how vulnerable Mike Tyson began to look once Evander Holyfield had so
effectively refused to be intimidated by him, the result being that even a Frans Botha was
willing to take the fight to the former champ. A fighter's aura is almost like a
forcefield - with it, very little touches him, without it he's a sitting target. And
I've not seen Hamed take as many shots as in this fight - his nose bled, he wore dark
glasses to conceal bruising afterwards. His American paymasters, the Home Box Office subscription TV network, claim that they
are unworried by the Prince's recent performances however. "Whatever you say
about him, he's still the biggest one-punch hitter in the sport and that makes for
exciting television," said HBO executive Lou DiBella. And Mr D is right. This run-of-the-mill fight turned into a thriller with a dramatic
conclusion. But it was supposed to be a mismatch - Ingle had no WBO Top 10 ranking - and
there is a risk that a stamina-troubled Hamed without his punch will develop into a TV
turn-off. If instead it transpires to work for Hamed, it will be for all the wrong
reasons. Arturo Gatti is great to watch, but no one pretends that he's a legend in
the making. If he has not peaked, as many are claiming, then Hamed is at a crossroads. Whether he
goes forwards or backwards from here remains to be seen. But I, for one, would not bet a
penny on what happens in the Prince's future. (Which, of course, makes for more good
TV and a continuing flow of cash into the newly formed Prince Promotions, the Hamed family
concern that promoted this show in association with Matchroom.) Unwittingly, Oscar Suarez, the little-known Puerto Rican who has replaced Brendan Ingle
as Hamed's trainer, may have added to Hamed's current, unsure situation. Suarez
apparently is a believer in a harsh fitness regime which may be too much for Hamed to take
after years without so much as a training run. Perhaps Hamed's general level of
fitness can be improved upon in time by the new regime. But it would be unrealistic and
unfair to judge Suarez on the evidence of one fight. If the softly spoken trainer feels secure, though, then his self-confidence must match
that of his paymaster. Suarez must fear, if only in private, for his future with Team
Hamed since the Detroit legend, Emanuel Steward, shared his debut in the Prince's
corner in Manchester. Steward, in town with Thomas Hearns, has trained 27 world champions including Lennox
Lewis, Evander Holyfield and Oscar De La Hoya. He is the top gun-for-hire in boxing
training today, a man generally brought in when there is a problem. Suarez was the surprise choice to fill the vacancy created by the breakdown in
relations between Hamed and the man who trained him since childhood, Brendan Ingle. The
New Jersey-based Suarez has little substantiated track record. Whether Steward stays with Hamed, as a corner adviser or otherwise, remains to be seen.
But the full-time attention of the Kronk Gym legend would come at a high price, at least
the equivalent of the £75,000 - "too expensive" - for Brendan Ingle's
services. Suarez's fee is far more competitive, rumoured to be in the £20,000
region. But you get what you pay for and Steward is the best. Still, Suarez deserves credit for the improvements in Hamed - and there were some -
that were evident even in this rather unsatisfying performance. The Prince's balance
was much improved, he kept his chin tucked in (until he tired in the later rounds), and
then there was the body punching that, had Hamed employed it against Wayne McCullough,
would have, I'm positive, brought that fight to an early end. Did no one in the Hamed
camp at that time note how the Ulsterman doubled up when caught to the body by the
relatively light-punching Daniel Zaragoza in their super bantam title fight? It is strange to think that the Ingle (Brendan) gym, which famously concentrates on
body sparring, should produce a fighter who hardly went to the body until his 32nd pro
outing and 12th world title defence. Suarez was heavily criticised before the fight by those, and I must include myself in
that number to some extent, who knew nothing about him. But, like Ingle (Paul), Suarez
proved himself in Manchester at least to the degree that he should get another shot at the
big job, with the suspicion that further opportunities may produce positive results. Great fighters find a way to win, and this, at the end of the day, is what Hamed did.
And while his stamina seems suspect, one must accept that at this stage of his career,
with the changes that have taken place, Hamed is still a work in progress. But world class
is not the safest place to try new tricks and Hamed would do well to realise that from
this point on things are going to get harder. If prospective opponents fancied the job before the Kelley fight, they did more so
after McCullough, and now Paul Ingle - £300,000 richer but now with a reverse on his
22-fight (15 KOs) record - has contributed significantly to that process. I may well have undervalued the challenger in last month's preview - if I did I
apologise to Ingle and to you for underselling him. Had Ingle's movement not been
hampered by torn ankle tendons following the knockdown against him in round one, who knows
what might have happened? The unthinkable can be thought and the unbeatable can lose. Ifs, buts, maybes - they're everywhere around this fight, after which it is as
impossible to judge Ingle as it is Hamed. One man, previously untested, may have fought
above himself, the other, possibly overrated, might have fought below himself. Both
suffered injuries that hampered them to degrees we cannot hope to understand. How does one
establish a form guide under those circumstances? How can one predict what the future
might hold for either of them? Good reason to stay tuned, I'd say. All will be revealed in time, if it has not
already been glimpsed. |
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