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Pastimes : Boxing: The Sweet Science -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: mr.mark who wrote (573)	8/18/2000 5:11:36 PM
From: LPS5	Read Replies (2) \| Respond to of 10489

`Prince Naz' wants to move the show inside the ring By JIMMY GOLEN AP Sports Writer August 18, 2000 MASHANTUCKET, Conn. (AP) -- It's as if Muhammad Ali took a vow of silence or George Foreman swore off cheeseburgers. WBO featherweight champion Prince Naseem Hamed says he will ``tone down'' his ring entrances, the lavishly produced spectacles that sometimes take as long as 10 minutes -- not counting rehearsals. ``I want to come to the ring faster,'' said Hamed, who puts his title at risk Saturday night against the WBO's No. 7 contender, Augie Sanchez. ''... I've mellowed as a person a bit. But in the ring, it hasn't mellowed me at all.'' Hamed (34-0, 30 KOs) has always been considered a good puncher and a great showman but less skilled in the technical aspects of boxing. Aware of questions whether he is more concerned about how he gets to the ring than what he does inside it, he promises a change against Sanchez (26-1, 23 KOs). The undercard features ``Irish'' Micky Ward (35-9, 26 KOs) of Lowell, Mass., against Antonio Diaz (32-2, 22 KOs) of Coachella, Calif. The HBO broadcast starts at 9:30 p.m., with the main event expected to begin by 10:45 p.m. It will probably start, as most Hamed fights do, with pulsing music, elaborate props and costumes and some kind of theme -- for Halloween, it was a ghost story played to Michael Jackson's ``Thriller'' -- while the champion makes the slow trek to the ring. Hamed is unapologetic about adding a little ``sparkle'' to the long-ignored featherweight division. Growing up in Sheffield, England, one of nine children to Yemeni parents, he wanted to be like Ali -- despite measuring just 5-foot-3 and 126 pounds. ``People were telling me, 'Naz, heavyweights get unbelievable amounts of money, man. Featherweights don't get nothing like that.' I said, 'You watch. I'm going to change boxing,' '' he said. ``I wanted to be different. I wanted to be seen as an exception. ``I brought something into boxing that wasn't really in, because when Ali went out, he brought a lot out with him. I want to bring just a little bit of that back.'' But with the World Wrestling Federation-style showmanship came questions whether he was a WWF-style fighter -- in other words, one who shouldn't be taken seriously. Hamed is not concerned. ``People take me seriously,'' he said. ``They know I've got the real fight in me.'' Emanuel Steward, one of his two trainers, said Hamed's showmanship is part of his personality, not a mere prop. ``People say to me, 'Why does he need two trainers?' Well, he really needs five trainers to keep up with him. He's got so much energy, so much excitement that it really conveys to the entire camp,'' Steward said. ``I'm watching him develop into a complete fighter. But the style that he has will not change.''