To the general relief of those hoping to make money from his presence on the New Jersey coast, Naseem Hamed at last showed up in Atlantic City yesterday to begin final preparations for his World Boxing Organisation world featherweight title defence against Wayne McCullough on Saturday.
His late arrival, a result of a failure to apply to the United States embassy for a visa before last Friday, has been widely criticised. But before leaving London on Concorde, Hamed predicted: "I'll win in three, you can put your house on it."
And he received what may have been unexpected support from his trainer Brendan Ingle. Their working relationship has been strained since the publication of a book in which Ingle told of Hamed's erratic training and behaviour prior to several of his title defences.
In a recent television interview, Hamed spoke of his betrayal, referring to Ingle as a "Judas". But Ingle said yesterday: "This time I'm not worried. I've had my rows and my ups and downs with him, but there's not a problem with his fitness. All the hard work's been done in Sheffield."
Hamed's conditioning has been overseen by Ingle's son Dominic, whose no-nonsense approach has brought the 24-year-old champion to his best shape in four years, according to Ingle senior.
"The last time he prepared like this was when he fought Vincenzo Belcastro (for the European bantamweight title). You can't fault him. He's been in the gym every day at 7.0 in the morning, then again at 4.0 in the afternoon. I know that he has prepared 100 per cent and Dominic assures me his weight is absolutely right," said Ingle.
It is Hamed's 12th world title fight, but only his second in the United States. His previous transatlantic trip saw him flirt with disaster before stopping Kevin Kelley in New York on December 19th last year and there are those who suspect he could be making life difficult for himself once again.
"Coming in now is the worst possible time," suggests Sky Sports pundit and former world cruiser-weight champion Glenn McCrory. "Because of the time difference, jet-lag will be a factor. Normally, you need much longer to acclimatise and he's not made it easy."
Super-bantamweight Japanese boxer Ken Katagiri died yesterday from brain damage, two weeks after suffering a knockout defeat. Katagiri, 28, was the 28th boxer to die from injuries suffered in a bout since the Japanese boxing commission was set up in 1952. It was the first ring fatality since junior bantamweight Akira Taiga died after suffering a knockout defeat in October 1997.
Despite the deaths, there have been no significant calls in Japan to ban boxing. Katagiri was knocked down by Fusaaki Takenaga, in the ninth round of a scheduled 10-round bout at Tokyo's Korakuen boxing hall on October 12th. Katagiri turned professional in January 1991 and had a record of five victories, six defeats and two draws.
