"The first time I watched Prince Naseem Hamed train, my jaw couldn't have dropped any faster if he had hit me with one of his lassoing uppercuts. I had followed all his fights on TV, of course. But to see him in the flesh in September 1994, a year before he became world champion, was an altogether more visceral and mesmeric experience. Hamed's punches sounded like firecrackers welcoming in the new year as they smashed into the pads."
"Naz can box orthodox and he can box southpaw, Brendan would tell me, and anyone else who visited the St Thomas' boys and girls club in Sheffield. He can switch hit. He is going to win world titles at every weight from featherweight to super-middleweight. The only person that will beat him is himself. Naturally, there was a touch of the blarney about this. But only a touch."
Prince Naseem Hamed trained with explosive speed and unconventional style; his punches sounded like firecrackers and he was almost impossible to hit. At 5ft 4in and nine stone he dominated larger sparring partners, including John Keeton. Brendan Ingle trained him from childhood, praising his ability to box orthodox and southpaw and predicting multiple world titles across weight classes. Their partnership produced rapid success but later fractured, creating tensions. The film Giant, starring Pierce Brosnan and Amir El-Masry, portrays Hamed’s rise from age seven, the collapse of the relationship with Ingle, and questions about innate talent versus shaped skill. Brendan also worked as a social worker.
Read at www.theguardian.com
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