Prince Naseem Hamed reflects. Wants to make up with Ingle

Naseem Hamed will be inducted into the International Boxing Hall of Fame in Canastota, New York State, on Sunday, cementing his place as one of the legends of British boxing. Unfortunately, due to a health issue with his wife Eleasha, he will be unable to attend the ceremony. But this week, Hamed, the once-flashy fighter who dazzled with his ring entrances in leopard-skin shorts and the power of his knockouts, broke cover to speak publicly about his two main regrets. He broke the rules in the ring with his brilliance. He had so many tricks and ring smarts. But he also broke the rules outside it. Namely, his relationship with former trainer Brendan Ingle, with whom he conquered the world. And, indeed, the speeding incident in which he injured another driver and for which he received a 15-month jail sentence. Prince Naseem believes he deserves his place in the Hall of Fame Hamed, now a burly man of 41 who lives in Wentworth, has property in Dubai, and spends most of his days with his wife and his three sons, would like to make up for lost time. Since retiring from the sport 13 years ago, he has rarely given interviews or appeared in public. He does not want pictures taken. Still there is that impish sense of humour, but the arrogance that made him loved and loathed in equal measure is long gone. Hamed was a born entertainer, the son of Yemeni immigrants whose corner shop was less than 100 yards from Ingle’s Wincobank gym on the same street on an industrial hillside in Sheffield. Hamed was in that gym from the age of seven, and without that converted boys’ club and the dedication of boxing Svengali Ingle, we might never have heard of the ‘Prince’. Promoted then by Frank Warren, they were a famous combination, Hamed making 15 consecutive defences of the World Boxing Organisation and International Boxing Federation featherweight titles, and recognised as the linear world champion at 126lb between 1995 and 2000. But Hamed left his mentor Ingle in an acrimonious split. It is one of the things Hamed wants to put right. “I want to see Brendan and say sorry for the nasty things I said about him, because I am so grateful for the things he did for me,” says Hamed, who insists that he maintains a deep respect for the septuagenarian. Prince Naseem is one of the most colourful characters the sport of boxing has seen. It had not always been that way. After 16 years together, late in 1997 Ingle told Hamed he was no longer prepared to work with him.Ingle revealed Hamed had belittled and insulted him in front of Frank Warren and Joe Calzaghe, saying he had achieved nothing, claimed he had been paid late and his fees reduced, and as such had accused the fighter of “making money his God” which embittered their relationship. Ingle has claimed that Hamed became “more obnoxious” as he became wealthier. Brendan Ingle told me recently: “I’d say to Naseem, ‘It’s no good being a good Muslim on a Friday and a b-----d the rest of the week. Just as it’s no good being a good Christian on a Sunday and a b-----d the rest of the week.’ Civility and good manners cost nothing.” Then, a year later, after the Wayne McCullough fight in October 1998, the divorce was complete as Ingle left Hamed, exasperated at his attitude and arrogance. There is much to make up for, then, and Hamed knows that, even if, understandably, he dwells on the times before it all went wrong. “The person that I want to be honoured with me in Canastota is the first trainer I ever had and that’s Brendan. He should be in the Hall of Fame. He’s produced so many world champions. The time I had with Brendan was an amazing time. It was priceless,” Hamed says. “You couldn’t put an amount of money on that. Naseem flips with joy after stopping Billy Hardy in 1997 “What I learnt from that gym and that environment was priceless. The only thing I really want is to sit with Brendan to apologise to him, if I upset him, and to make up with Brendan. “I’ve been asking to go and see him for two or three years and his son keeps saying to me he’s not ready. I want to go back. “I spent more time with that man than his own gym. You can just see how many world champions and great fighters were created from that stable. “It wouldn’t be a nice thing if I walked to the actual house and was rejected. I went to a boxing show not long ago and he was there. He looked at me like he could see straight through me. I will go there, put my cards on the table and say: ‘Listen, I’m a father of three now, them boxing days have gone by the wayside, I’m just here to say to you, I’d love to make up with you. I want to give you a big hug and apologise for everything I said wrong to you or did. I want you to forgive me.’***8201;” There are regrets, too, about his recklessness at the wheel that nearly claimed another man’s life. On May 2, 2005, Hamed was driving his £325,000 McLaren***8209;Mercedes at 90mph and crashed head on in Sheffield with another car. The driver of the other vehicle, Anthony Burgin, then 38, spent weeks in hospital with fractures to “every major bone in his body”. His wife Clare was also injured. Hamed’s car also hit a second vehicle, a Ford Mondeo he had been trying to overtake. When the case came to court, the driver of the Mondeo, Michael Wood, described Hamed’s overtaking manoeuvre as “stupid, suicide, ridiculous”. “The only thing I regret in the whole of that was me injuring someone in the way that I did. I regret that so much,” Hamed says. “To put anybody through any kind of pain… that whole jail thing is far, far away now. It’s all about that one individual. I just hope one day he can forgive me. It was an accident.” Time has mellowed the man. “With age, you become more humble, more wise. As a father, you become more responsible. I’m a lot more mature.” His career, and perhaps his desire after such huge earnings, came to a shuddering halt with a one-sided points defeat to Mexican great Marco Antonio Barrera in 2001 in Las Vegas. Ingle believes Hamed failed to develop the defensive capabilities which could have prolonged his career. Hamed appears ringside, fleetingly, at the occasional event these days. But he still watches the sport with interest. Gone, he reckons, are the entertainers. “It’s a totally different era. Boxing’s changed in that way. No matter what anyone says, Floyd Mayweather deserves every penny of that. And I’m so happy for him to get paid that kind of money. I just feel proud when they say in Forbes magazine that the highest***8209;paid athlete is a fighter. I remember when I was getting a lot more money than Floyd and he couldn’t deal with the fact I had an HBO contract and he didn’t. But I’ve always rated him and always thought he was number one.” Amir Khan should fight Kell Brook, according to Prince Like many critics, Hamed saw the Mayweather-Manny Pacquiao megafight on May 2 as a letdown. “I waited five years to watch that fight and then saw it, I was thinking, ‘What a load of rubbish’. We’re talking about fighting, boxing, entertaining the crowd, going down in history. If this was supposed to be the fight of the decade, these people will be missing me even more.” Today, Hamed sees fights which “must be signed”, such as Amir Khan-Kell Brook (another Ingle fighter), and believes Carl Frampton and Anthony Joshua are two of the brightest stars in the sport. “I want to see Amir fight Kell Brook and I want that to be an all-British bash at Wembley. I just don’t see why Amir is overlooking Kell Brook. You’ve got a world champion on your doorstep with a legitimate belt in your weight category. “But if every one of us was in Amir’s position, we probably would hold out for Mayweather. But I honestly think Amir might give him a harder fight than his last 10 opponents. Amir fights in a whole different style, he’s got fast hands. I would love Amir to win that fight. As much as I really like Floyd and I’m a friend of his, seeing one of our fighters do it over there – a Muslim – I would love him to do it. I think he’s got a chance and I think Floyd knows he might have a chance and I think that’s why he might be avoiding it. ” As for Brook-Khan, he muses: “You either see a knockout or you see a victory on points. You all know who’s going to do the knockout and you all know who can win on points. It should be a fight that goes on in this country and it should sell out Wembley.” The heavyweight division, he believes, has a rising star in Anthony Joshua, the London Olympic super-heavyweight champion, and fancies super***8209;bantamweight world champion Carl Frampton, from Belfast, to “hold belts for a long time”. “I am excited by and impressed with Anthony Joshua but Anthony has a long way to go. At first I thought Anthony was similar to a Frank Bruno figure, but after a few fights I realised he’s nothing like Frank Bruno. He’s very athletic. I 100 per cent believe he will be world champion.” Looking back on his own career, his favourite night was the Kevin Kelley fight in 1997. “That was an exciting fight. It meant that much because it’s always make or break when a fighter from this country goes to America and proves themselves. That was make or break in my career because it was at Madison Square Garden and it was a massive event. There were like six knockdowns. What I found unreal was the power of TV. When I turned up, nobody knew me. After I knocked him out, America knew who I was.” And on Sunday, in New York State, they will celebrate ‘Prince’ Naseem Hamed once more. http://www.telegraph.co.uk/sport/othersports/boxing/11673288/Prince-Naseem-I-deserve-to-be-in-the-Hall-of-Fame.html