Boxing: The harming of Hamed's image

After a lacklustre fight night in the US, Prince Naseem must start listening to other experienced voices. By Bob Mee

ATTEMPTS are already under way to seal the gaping holes in Naseem Hamed's public image. The plastering's done, the paper's on, now all that's needed is time and a little bit of warmth and nobody will know there was any damage in the first place.

The movers and shakers around the truculent 24-year-old featherweight champion have, no doubt, dealt with the problems posed by last week's Atlantic City adventure in different ways. Some will deny there was ever a difficulty, that it was a fiction inspired by an antagonistic media. Some will lay the blame for what was, in Britain at least, a public-relations disaster, anywhere but at their own door. Some will play others off against each other in order to tighten their grip on Hamed, who remains a marketable item in spite of his bad behaviour in his brief stay on the New Jersey coast.

In the scramble, some will undoubtedly be hurt. The one sure thing is that Hamed will remain with the American cable network, HBO, who issued a fax last week declaring his dull points win over Wayne McCullough in Atlantic City was actually a resounding success. HBO's Lou Di Bella ended the fax confirming their satisfaction with their British investment by declaring: "Count us among those who love him."

Hamed surrounds himself with admirers, none of whom show any signs of having ever argued with him. It's been said that the only man who can give him orders is his father, Sal. Nothing wrong with that, but he should have other people to whom he will listen, and those people must have experience to deal with tough, tricky situations.

His fall-out with his trainer and mentor, Brendan Ingle, is now well documented. Ingle was still in the corner last week, but was Hamed listening to him? Will they still be together when he boxes again, perhaps in February?

There is uncertainty, too, over the future of his relationship with Frank Warren, whose promotional hold on him was relaxed for this fight because of his own business difficulties. Financial restraints in place pending the outcome of his own dispute with his former partner Don King led to a reduction in Warren's formal role in Atlantic City, where he was a consultant to the promoter of licence Cedric Kushner. He remained a high-profile presence, however, and back in England said he himself had had no cross words with his young champion.

There was a brief claim in a national newspaper earlier in the week that the Hamed camp might consider "one-to-one" interviews with critics. Any possibility of interpreting that as a possible peace offering disappeared with the rider that they believed the criticism had been orchestrated. This is palpable nonsense. His team should get it straight in their heads that the reaction against him was a direct result of his own appallingly arrogant behaviour.

As someone who arrived in town late to find a welling anger among the normally calm British press said: "How on earth can he have upset so many people in such a short time?" How, indeed.

His delayed arrival, following an amateurish problem with a work permit, annoyed Bally's Hotel and Casino, who had shelled out a substantial amount of hard cash in site fees, and who understandably wanted a serious return on the outlay. At the final press confer- ence, a Bally's spokesman spoke plainly of their disappointment. The fight drew just over 8,000 in a 15,000 capacity arena.

When he did arrive, instead of playing the situation calmly and sensibly, Hamed was confrontational. He was rude to several journalists, spoke with astonishing insensitivity about McCullough, who is from Belfast, needing a machine gun or an Uzi in the ring, and when asked by an American writer if he wished to modify the statement, replied coldly: "Next."

At least one British journalist questioned Sky's decision to screen his vitriolic personal attack on Colin Hart of the Sun. However, whether he liked it or not, the media had become part of the story.

I should declare my own position. I have worked as a freelance member of the Sky boxing team for eight years. In that time, indeed in television work dating back to 1984, I cannot remember another main- event fighter refusing a live promotional interview 48 hours before the show. Yet Hamed did so to Sky, when the point of this was largely promoting pay-per-view sales, and so in turn was helping increase his own financial reward. Whatever the reason for it, his decision was inappropriate.

Commercially, Hamed remains viable - one dull fight does not destroy a man who has been mostly explosive and charismatic - but it has long been proven that financial backing hinges on image. A decade ago, Mike Tyson lost sponsors because of a remark about wanting to drive an opponent's nose into the base of his brain. They did not come back. 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.