By Gav Duthie: Love him or hate him you couldn’t take your eyes off him. Prince Naseem Hamed was box office. Everything from his ring walk to his fighting style was pure showman. Time passes on and it was 12 years ago that we last seen him in a boxing ring. Hamed was so popular during his reign as featherweight champion he put boxing on the map in Britain and no doubt inspired many to take up the sport especially in the English/Arabic community. We are now starting to see the fruits of his labour with a crop of exciting stars who have adopted a similar style coming through.
Kell Brook 33-0 (22)
Age 28
Welterweight
The Special One is 12 years Hamed’s junior and is a former stablemate of The Prince. Brook to me seems to be a more stable version of Hamed. He has the fancy footwork, fast hands and does like a potshot but he uses his jab more and doesn’t fly in with lead hooks and uppercuts. Hamed was relatively clueless when he came up against the solid counter-punching of Barrera but Brook exposes himself less. It os a great shame that Kell has suffered this terrible injury through his stabbing as he was getting ready to show us how good he really is.
Kid Galahad 18-0 (9)
Age 24
Super Bantamweight
Galahad another product of the the Brendan Ingle academy is a very similar fighter. He freely admits that Hamed is his idol and explains that it was a chance meeting in a mosque with him that persuaded him to take up boxing and join the Ingle revolution. Galahad was actually born Barry Awad in Doha to Yemenis parents but has been in the UK since age 2. It was the charismatic Brendan Ingle that suggested his ring name should be Kid Galahad after the 1962 Elvis movie. A lopsided points victory over Adeilson Dos Santos, (now 14-1) on Saturday won him the strangely title IBF youth championship. This could put him in a strong position with the IBF where the current champion is Carl Frampton. Galahad is promoted by Mick Hennessey so his good work has went somewhat under the radar on channel 5. I think Galahad has a great chance to make it big if he signs with Warren or Hearn but is in one of the hottest divisions in boxing. It should be an interesting next couple of years.
Khalid Yafai 12-0 (9)
Age 25
Super Flyweight
Yafai isn’t actually part of the Ingle Sheffield stable but his style is very similar to that of Hamed. He packs a great punch for a Super Flyweight and seems to breeze through no matter what level he is fighting at. He is promoted by Matchroom and trained by Frank O’Sullivan. Yafai was part of the UK Olympic team in 2008 but lost in the last 16 to the eventual silver medalist Andry Laffita. He carried on as an amateur and attempted to make the 2012 Olympic team in London but lost out after being defeated by Andrew Selby. Yafai again looked spectacular on Saturday knocking out Nicaraguan Moreno in 2 rounds. He will probably looking to fight for a title in 2015.
Hamed may have had problems outside the ring and his decision to quit boxing when the 126lb division was just getting hot (Morales, Barrera, Marquez, Harrison, Tapia, Pacquaio) was extremely disappointing. Nevertheless he clearly inspired a generation of boxers and the three aforementioned are just a few who are looking to re-create what he did. Best of luck to them all.
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