Is Hide for real this time?

After David Haye stopped Jean-Marc Mormeck in November to win the WBC and WBA titles, the cruiserweight division, with Enzo Maccarinelli as WBO champion, seemed hot as anything. Then Haye said he was moving up to heavyweight and a cold chill spread into the room. Now it looks like Frank Warren has made the Haye-Maccarinelli match for all three titles and the hot air blower is heating up again.

But Haye and Maccarinelli are not the only two British cruiserweights on fire at the moment - across the North Sea, Herbie Hide is re-emerging as a menacing presence.

On Sunday, in Halle, Germany, the man once dubbed the Dancing Destroyer scored the fifth and most impressive victory of his latest comeback under Ahmet Oner, the German promoter, as he floored Mikhail Nasyrov, a previously-unbeaten Russian, four times on the way to stopping him in six rounds.
The bout won Hide the WBC international title so, presumably, will give him a pretty lofty world ranking, but at 36, and nearly 14 years after he won the WBO heavyweight title by beating Michael Bentt at Millwall, could Hide really be a big threat?

The problems with Hide have never been ability, but emotionally he has always been a mess. I remember chatting to Oner one night after a show in Germany early last year when he told me he had signed Hide.

"Don't you all call him Crazy Herbie in England?" he said.
Well, yes we do. People still talk about his antics at the press conference before his ultimately one-sided WBO heavyweight title loss to Vitali Klitschko when he threw over a table to get at, not his opponent, but Danny Williams, who was due to be in a supporting contest on the bill.

There was the story of how he managed to set fire to several thousand pounds he had been given as expenses to pay sparring partners but had decided to hide in a lampshade instead of put in the bank. I remember during his time as a comebacking heavyweight with Mick Hennessy on the BBC, when I interviewed him ringside. He never made eye contact with me and spent the entire interview gently prodding me in the stomach. Another time, at Alexandra Palace, when I asked him a question he claimed not to like, he cocked his fist threatened to punch me, only to then say he was only joking with his mates - charming!

It was that night when he blew that heavyweight comeback as he suddenly said he would not fight Williams, whom the BBC had been plotting to match him with. After a cut eye defeat he vanished back to Las Vegas, where he has a home, re-emerging in Canada. But after one bout there, he cleared off back to Europe where he signed with Oner, who also promotes Sinan Samil Sam and three defecting Cuban Olympic champions - most notably Odlanier Solis, the heavyweight.

In Halle, against an opponent he was confident against, Hide looked great. "Now I will go on to become world cruiserweight champion," he said. "Tell Marco Huck and David Haye that I will knock them out the same night if they want."

Oner, too, was very happy. "That was boxing that I like to watch," he said. "This Russian kid just didn't want to give up. Every time Herbie knocked him down he stood right up again and came back. I think he might have even won one or two rounds. Still Herbie showed great effort and once more proved that he is one of the hardest hitting cruiserweights in the world."

With men of his own size - Hide was always too small to be a modern-day heavyweight but too big for cruiserweight until the weight limit went up 10lb to 14st 4lb - Hide is always likely to be a threat, as long as he fancies it. But too often he seems to have got spooked before fights, cleared off rather than face a challenge. Most people "inside" the sport think of him as mostly a bully.

If Oner can keep Hide's mind on the job, he could have a contender. If he can't, he has got himself a headache.

Comments

[Ron Lewis]

To be fair to Nick, I did change it to clarify that after his comment, but put his comment on because it was a good call about the taxi crash, which I had forgotten.

[Poncherello]

Point of order Nick...

"but Danny Williams, who WAS DUE to be in a supporting contest on the bill"

[Nick Bankes]

Point of order Ron, Danny Williams never appeared on the Klitschko-Hide bill after suffering whiplish when his taxi was involved in an accident on his way to the venue.