By Steve Bunce
IN JANUARY 1998 Herbie Hide was chasing Roy Jones for a battle and a date in June was talked about.
Hide had regained the WBO heavyweight title in the summer time of 1997 when he knocked out what was left of Tony Tucker in Norwich. That could also be harsh, sorry.
In the first week of January, Hide was making his technique to Frank Warren’s workplace to make a deal for the Jones battle. Jones was near accepting the supply and HBO had been on board with American tv rights. This was occurring. I do know this as a result of I wrote day by day updates on the progress of the deal. There was a boxing information story in the paper nearly each day, and beginning the 12 months with heavyweight information was terrific.
Jones, who was simply 28 at the time, had given up his WBC light-heavyweight title and had introduced he would bounce over the cruiserweights and think about the heavyweight world title.
Jones had his eyes on Michael Moorer, who had been the IBF heavyweight champion. Jones thought of him a “daunting” problem; Moorer had additionally been a light-heavyweight champion.
“Hide is the man now,” was a quote that I used to be given.
Jones was additionally following James Toney and Iran Barkley, two smaller males who had made the transition and bulked up 50 kilos or extra. Barkley had briefly held one thing referred to as the World Boxing Board heavyweight title in 1997. Toney, in the meantime, was matched with Larry Holmes in a battle scheduled for January 21. What a time to be alive and a heavyweight fan.
So, to be clear, they’d Toney v Holmes and Hide v Jones and now we have Tyson Fury v Oleksandr Usyk and Anthony Joshua v Francis Ngannou. Those outdated days had been actually golden, my son.
Hide, I warned, needed to come by a defence in February. Thankfully, by the finish of the week, the story had moved on and I had turned to cruiserweight and the EBU’s determination to strip Johnny Nelson. Three days later, it was Tanveer Ahmed making an attempt to change into the first boxer of Asian origin to win the British title. Ahmed failed, by the approach. He was outpointed by Wayne Rigby for the vacant British light-weight title. It was battle, shut till the final spherical. All this occurred in the first 12 days of the month and then on the thirteenth, there was an actual cracker.
Big John Fashanu and Herbie had carried out a deal. Fash was his enterprise supervisor, a battle was deliberate for Norwich – they had been each Norwich boys – for February 28 and the purchasing record was a bit ropey: Lee Gilbert or Darroll Wilson. Ouch.
Fash and Herbie had been stunning collectively. Hide had been in the wars; after beating Tucker, which was an honest win, he had his coronary heart really damaged when his little brother, Alan, died. Hide went to his mom’s home in Nigeria to grieve. I can do not forget that now. Poor Herbie was in a proper state. He additionally had, at the moment, two pending authorized prices; one was driving associated, the different an alleged assault.
In an normal cameo, John Hornewer, who’s arguably the strongest particular person in boxing that you’ve by no means heard of, popped up as Hide’s adviser. Hornewer has been the authorized consultant and nonetheless represents the biggest fighters of the final 30 years.
“The intention,” Hornewer stated of Hide. “Is not just to help him now, but to help him for the rest of his life.”
Hide, by the way, was ready for a allow for his new panther. I do not forget that Hide had a number of very massive rottweilers – 12 in response to what I wrote – patrolling the grounds at the home his tens of millions constructed. I went to the plot of land when he’d simply purchased it and then after the Tucker battle for a drink. Hide was so happy with it. This all occurred earlier than January 15.
I don’t know if the panther licence and a panther ever occurred.
Big Fashanu was not on the scene for very lengthy. He remains to be on plenty of different scenes.
Hornewer is extra highly effective now than ever.
Jones by no means fought Hide, clearly. Instead, he continued his light-heavyweight reign till shifting to heavyweight in 2003 to battle John Ruiz.
Moorer had misplaced his IBF world title to Evander Holyfield in November 1997. Moorer then took three years off. What form of enterprise was this? It’s loopy.
James Toney by no means fought Larry Holmes. He moved up and down in divisions and fought at very completely different weights. He was in world heavyweight title fights in 2005 and 2006. They weren’t nice spectacles. Barkley simply light, grew larger and extra of a freak present.
Hide’s proposed opponents for the February present in Norwich, Wilson and Gilbert, had a combined 12 months in 1998. Wilson had three fights and was knocked out twice; Gilbert had one battle and vanished for eight years. These had been arduous years to get enthusiastic about, belief me. They had been a era of unreliable lunatics.
In 1998, Hide made two defences of his WBO heavyweight title. He knocked out Damon Reed in 52 seconds and Willi Fischer in 64 seconds. It is difficult to invent these things.
It is just too simple to overlook that Hide’s final battle was in 2010, at cruiserweight in a Prizefighter at York Hall. Eddie Hearn had not but taken over the boxing at Matchroom. Hide received, however he needed to withdraw with a minimize. He then walked off into the Norfolk sunshine and not using a panther or a Fashanu in sight.
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