“Mike Tyson hits harder and moves better than I thought he did. Too many people told me he was shot, well they were wrong.”I went to the Tyson fight with a plan but I never stuck to the plan and, to be honest, it is hard to stay with a strategy when somebody is hitting you as hard as Tyson does I just had to fight back and I knew that would be a risk. I know that I did everything I could on the night,” said Francis.Holden has a reputation for excessive bravery, but that is not always an asset inside the ropes, and enters the ring tonight having lost four times in 11 fights, including a points defeat to Francis in July 1996. Holden insists he would have beaten Francis if he had been given more than four days to prepare for their previous fight.

Francis disagrees.”Holden is strong and can punch if you let him get too close or take him lightly but I have prepared for this in the proper way. This is not just another pay-day, this is a British title defence and if he thinks I’ve cut any corners he is wrong,” added Francis.Meanwhile, Repton’s Audley Harrison became Britain’s first boxer to qualify for the Olympic Games by reaching the final of the super-heavyweight qualification tournament in Halle, Germany, on Saturday.. He does a world-class sneer, does Naseem Hamed, and it was turned up to full wattage just after midnight on Saturday when he scanned the ranks of reporters arrayed beneath him Beneath him, that is to say, in every sense. “I got a buzz from reading the criticisms,” he said, looking down and curling his lip like a stage villain “I loved the way they used ‘lacklustre’.

Lack! Lustre!”

He does a world-class sneer, does Naseem Hamed, and it was turned up to full wattage just after midnight on Saturday when he scanned the ranks of reporters arrayed beneath him Beneath him, that is to say, in every sense. “I got a buzz from reading the criticisms,” he said, looking down and curling his lip like a stage villain “I loved the way they used ‘lacklustre’. Lack! Lustre!”
His brown eyes positively glowed with lustre as they surveyed the enemy. By now his lip was curling so far that it threatened to start disappearing up his left nostril “I’m going to read your stories tomorrow,” he continued.

“And when I do, I’m going to be thinking of the expression on every one of your faces.”The problem was that some of those at Olympia on Saturday, when Hamed stopped Vuyani Bungu of South Africa in the fourth round, had been guilty of suggesting that his recent performances – particularly the last two, against Paul Ingle and Cesar Soto – had done scant justice to his talent and reputation.According to Hamed, whose career record now extends to 34 victories, 30 inside the distance, his highly efficient despatch of Bungu’s challenge to his World Boxing Organisation featherweight title had nothing to do with those criticisms. This was hard to square with his declaration he had prepared for his meeting with Bungu by adopting a completely different regime One may assume, then, there something needed correcting. But in Hamed’s view, the very act of pointing it out constitutes a form of lÿse-majesté.That may be an unduly harsh reading. He was humble enough to give effusive thanks not just to Allah but to his two trainers, Emanuel Steward of Detroit and Oscar Suarez of Puerto Rico, who alternated the function of dispensing inter-round advice.

This was a first in championship professional boxing, so far as anyone could remember. Although it seemed fraught with risk, the strategy seemed to work on this occasion, since Hamed beat a highly rated opponent through the application of sound tactics and impressive discipline.The experienced Manny Steward enumerated the demands he had made on joining Hamed’s camp, which involved persuading the fighter to shorten his punches, to improve his balance, and to get his hands wrapped properly. “He’d never had any basic boxing training,” the man from the Kronk gym said. “But he has so much natural instinct.”"The advice I got was perfect,” Hamed said “I’ve got different trainers now, and I do as I’m told For once in my life, I’ve started to have a plan. But you’re out there on your own, and you’ve got to find your own openings.”Sometimes, however, it is impossible to listen to Hamed without yearning for the days when fighters let their actions speak for themselves. Here, for the record, is his own assessment of his performance against Bungu: “Sharpness, speed, accuracy, power, breaking somebody up with shots to the body, angles, and a wicked finish. I’m giving myself an A-plus tonight.” He didn’t need to say all that – nobody was about to advance any other opinion.Never varying from a wide-open southpaw stance, he had exerted absolute control over all but a few seconds of the fight.