Half time was approaching in the Arsenal-West Ham game at the Emirates last Saturday when into Frank Warren's hospitality box bounded a familiar figure, if somewhat podgier than in his fighting days.

Naseem Hamed, no less. The boxer formerly known as Prince had in tow the new Commonwealth Games light-heavyweight champion, Callum Johnson.

Blithely he announced he is to become a manager and that the 25-year-old big-hitter who won gold for Scotland is his first signing. "You can tell everyone that Naz is back in boxing," declared the former world featherweight champion.

It is eight years since the inimitable Naz last strutted his imperious stuff in the ring, from which he has never officially announced his retirement.

Has he missed boxing: "Not as much as it has missed me," he retorted with a flash of that once-familiar arrogance.

He does seem to have mellowed somewhat these days, aided no doubt by a spell in jail following a serious motoring offence and the fact that he has left his old stamping ground in Sheffield and now resides, with his family (wife and three sons) cushioned by the millions he made from boxing, on the edge of Wentworth golf course, where he plays regularly. "Boxing has lost its glamour and excitement," he tells us. "I'm going to bring it back."

Well, he has yet to get his manager's licence, but there's no doubt he will, especially as once again he has Warren in his corner as his promoter. They famously fell out in the nineties after Warren had steered him, as he did other subsequent 'deserters' Ricky Hatton, Joe Calzaghe and Amir Khan, to their world titles and riches.

But Hamed has been popping up at the ringside at Warren shows of late and on Saturday it was evident that they are bosom buddies again.

I have to say that of all the boxers I have known Naz was one of the most talented but least likeable, often supercilious and demeaning of opponents and we in the media. But now he could not be friendlier, though I declined to remind him of the occasion when, in his penultimate fight, he was humiliatingly humbled in Las Vegas by the formidable Mexican Marco Antonio Barrera- his only defeat in 37 contests.

The smirks on the faces of British scribes at the painful conclusion of that 12-round drubbing indicated that the feeling of dislike was mutual. "Allah is great," he had intoned repeatedly during the build-up to the fight in March 2001. "Allah is in my corner, Allah says I cannot be beaten." As he walked into the press conference after the fight one of our number glanced up and asked: "Allah's night off was it Naz?"

He may not have heard, though if he did he was too chastened to respond. But at least he had taken his licking like a man.


And now he is is our midst again, some three stones heavier and considerably more mature. But his presence may spell danger for amateur boxing. For signing Johnson is just the start, he says. He is also likely to bag for his new stable at least one of the three Indian boxers who won gold in Delhi and you can be bet he will be eyeing the talent on view in the inaugural GB Championships in Liverpool on Friday and Saturday week.

For the moment though, he will concentrate on coaching and managing Johnson, who hails from Lincolnshire and is Scottish on his mother's side. "When I watched him on television in the Commonwealth Games and saw him knock out a guy with his left hook I leapt out of my chair," said Hamed, who predicts "he will win his first 10 fights by KO".

We will soon have a chance to see if Johnson is as good as Naz says for he makes his pro debut on Warren's bill in Glasgow on December 4, when another Scot, Ricky Burns, defends the world featherweight title Hamed himself once held for four years, successfully defending it 15 times after becoming Britain's youngest-ever world champion at 21.

It will be a blow to Rob McCracken's Team GB to lose Johnson (pictured below), who had been a member of the podium squad and looked set for a 2012 berth after his display in Delhi. But he explained: "I am 25 now and have always intended to turn professional. While I was happy with the GB set-up and have a high regard for Rob I think 2012, when I will be 27, is too old to become a professional. In any case the opportunity of being trained and managed by Naz, who is a legend to so many of us in boxing, was too good to turn down."

Someone who doesn't feel the same way – yet – is Liverpool's 26-year-old Tom Stalker, who captained England in Delhi where he too won a gold medal to add to his European silver. Last week he was awarded the Amateur Boxer of the Year trophy by the Boxing Writers' Club and admits there was a temptation to follow Johnson's route. But he has elected to stay with the amateurs until after the Games because "winning an Olympic gold medal is my dream. It would be the best feeling in the world and I'd hate to miss out on that chance".

"The Commonwealth Games and Europeans were just a taster for that. Yes, I want to turn pro but only after 2012. I'll be 28 then and at my peak. The way boxing is these days I reckon I could have seven good years as a pro."

Stalker was given a rousing reception recently at Goodison Park before the Everton-Liverpool derby. "Perhaps the Everton supporters didn't realise I am a Liverpool fan," he chuckles.

Stalker is set to star in a tournament designed to show that British amateur boxing has got talent. It will be televised by the BBC who, for the first time, will screen women's boxing as several of Britain's ladies who punch will be on show, including world championships silver medallists Nicola Adams and Savannah Marshall. It should be a tasty fistic treat at the Echo Arena, with the semi-finals on Friday and finals on Saturday (tickets available online at www.echoarena.com or 0844 8000400).

This is an intriguing and vital tournament for all 2012 contenders, plus those wanting to force their way in into head coach McCracken's reckoning. Among them is the former European featherweight champion Luke Campbell, now boxing at bantamweight, who, though not selected for Delhi, has been unbeaten this year, with impressive wins in overseas competitions. He must fend off stiff competition from current Euro silver medallist Iain Weaver and Commonwealth Games winner Sean McGoldrick.

Stalker faces a possible lively return bout with Scot Josh Taylor, who was less than pleased at losing to him in the Delhi final. Londoner Martin Ward, from Repton's production line of top class amateurs, also a likely 2012 prospect, is alongside them in the lightweight mix.


With former amateur pals turned best of enemies David Haye and Audley Harrison (also ex-Repton) hogging the world heavyweight limelight across Lancashire in Manchester on the Saturday night, it will be fascinating to see if England's new Commonwealth Games heavyweight champion Simon Vallily and super-heavyweight Anthony Joshua have what it takes to fill their boxing boots at some time in the future.

The tournament comes at a time when amateur boxing seems to have as many punch-ups outside the ring as in it. Last week saw the suspension of England women's coaches Mick Gannon and Chris Bessey by the ABA, believed to follow an incident involving an alleged drinking session during a training camp in Portsmouth.

The relationship between the ABA of England and the new umbrella body the British Amateur Boxing Association is whispered to be less than harmonious and there is the curious and convoluted ongoing spat between the ABA's chief executive, Paul King, and the head honcho of AIBA, Dr C KWu, returned to office "by acclamation" during the AIBA get-together in Almaty, Kazakhstan, for the launch of the new World Boxing Series in which BABA and the ABA have decided to play no part, wisely in my view.

King, who unsuccessfully challenged Dr Wu for the AIBA Presidency, boycotted the event in Almaty, where scores of nations were absent because of unpaid sanction fees, as insidethegames reported.

One suspects that Paul King would have needed the muscle of Don King to dislodge the ambitious Dr Wu, who some say eyes the IOC Presidency eventually. The WSB is his baby, partially designed to offer young amateurs an alternative to turning pro by performing without vests and headguards and earning prize money.

Whether even Dr Wu, all mighty in Almaty, has enough clout to fend off the raiding party about to be launched by the back-in-business Naseem Hamed is an intriguing question. Somebody ring the bell.

Alan Hubbard is an award-winning sports columnist for The Independent on Sunday, and a former sports editor of The Observer. He has covered a total of 16 Summer and Winter Olympics, 10 Commonwealth Games, several football World Cups and world title fights from Atlanta to Zaire.