Boxing: Brodie waits for Hamed to end exile
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Your support makes all the difference.After 12 rounds Michael Brodie had retained his World Boxing Federation featherweight title but he will have to wait until later this week to find out if his performance has persuaded the fallen idol Naseem Hamed to end his exile and agree to fight him.
Brodie simply knew too much about long, hard fights and often did as he pleased against Mexico's Luis Fuente at the Altringham Leisure Centre on Saturday night and won with scores of 119-11, 118-112 and 117-113. Brodie is now a veteran at 28 of 12 title fights. "I have Naseem's word that he will fight me next," claimed Brodie, who was stopped in one round by Hamed when the pair met as amateurs.
"I'm looking at a date in March in Manchester and hopefully I will be able to prove that I'm the best featherweight in Britain."
Brodie's promoter, Barry Hearn, confirmed that a March date had been agreed but not yet signed and sealed. However, Hamed failed to show at ringside and has not been seen since his disastrous return to boxing in May when he was booed during and after a dull fight against Spain's Manuel Calvo.
Hamed's fight before that was in Las Vegas a year earlier when he was exposed and beaten for the first time by Marco Antonio Barrera. A meeting is scheduled for Friday to confirm or deny a fight with Brodie in March.
As expected and predicted Wayne Rigby lost his WBF light-welterweight title to Liverpool's Gary Ryder in a hard and gruelling fight. Ryder was having just his 10th fight and therefore he in theory occupies a unique place in boxing history as the least-experienced British world champion ever.
In the third world title fight on the long bill, Belfast's Brian Magee retained his International Boxing Organisation super-middleweight championship on points against the American substitute Jose Spearman.
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