HERBIE HIDE comes from a different time.
There is a gym that used to be in Camden Town, not far from the modern Camden Boxing gym, where Herbie Hide once stared at a nail for an hour.
It’s a long story with stops in Las Vegas, the New Den and a courtroom or two.
At the new gym last week, Adam Aziz is going through the motions of a media day. He’s slick, great poses, funny and he’s still just a kid in his boxing years. Once, in Jim McDonnell’s gym just down the road in Camden, a practice session in front of the media went awry and Hide let his punches and senses run to the bells.
At another press conference to announce a world title fight, there was an all-out duel with his opponent. One night at York Hall, when he was there to fight Audley Harrison, there was a riot. No, a proper riot with the lights on and the police passing through the destroyed seat. He can be innocent in all three skirmishes: Welcome to the world of Herbie Hide.
So one night in Las Vegas in the summer of 2019, Riddick Bowe was at an old bar telling stories about boxing. An hour or two earlier, he was selling selfies inside MGM; In the bar, he’s keeping an eye on another group of eager fans. Bowe’s fall from greatness remains one of boxing’s modern tragic stories.
Bowe said: “I was hit the hardest by Herbie Hide. “Damn, he’s so brave and dangerous.” Most listeners have never heard of Hide.
Without a doubt, Herbie Hide is boxing’s most invisible and forgotten ‘world heavyweight champion’. He is one of the lost fighters of British boxing. Hide’s trip to Las Vegas to lose his WBO belt to Bowe is rarely mentioned when discussing heavyweight fights.
The Bowe War is Hide’s first defense. He won the title when he knocked out Michael Bentt in 1994, outdoors at Millwall’s stadium. That war was also forgotten. Hide also regained his heavyweight title, made two defenses and lost it overnight, when he was a gambler, to Vitali Klitschko in 1999. It was a strange night at the London Arena. old.
In 1995, at the MGM in Las Vegas, Hide was eliminated a total of six times before a pitiful finish in the sixth round. As Bowe admitted, he had hurt the big man. Hide went on to have 22 more battles after that night and remains a mystery and danger. Hide’s last battle was in 2010, a strange Prizefighter appeared at York Hall; he won, but had to retreat with a terrible cut.
The huge house that Hide built was paid for by the amount he lost to Bowe. A few years later, at a party, a man is killed at home. Hide was not there at the time. Surely Hide has a lot of debris.
After the loss to Bowe, there was a quick fight for the vacant WBO belt when Hide dropped out and stopped Tony Tucker after just two rounds in 1997. Hide was just 25 years old when he regained the belt. Hide has blocked many of his opponents with both fists; he ended his career with 53 fights, 49 wins, 43 quick fights and only 4 losses. When he lost to Bowe, he entered the ring with an undefeated record in 26 games with 25 quick finishes.
“There always seems to be something wrong,” Hide once told me. “I get a big fight; I win and then something happens, and it goes bad.” He became known as the Dancing Terminator, a name given to him by Darkie Smith one night during a long drive back from somewhere like Preston. Well, that’s the version I remember; There are two or three versions for most Hidden stories.
Hide has had some spectacular setbacks with everyone. There are court dates and legal threats. He was banned from several channels for swearing. He will always apologize afterwards. He made me a scammer on Setanta and then a few years later, when his book was published, he repeated the word on BoxNation. “You’re the game to get me back,” he said, as a warning.
“Losing Bowe made me tougher,” he once said. He has the ability to take down the big guys with a single punch and he can unravel. His two battles with the tough Joseph Chingangu are a perfect example of Hide’s good and bad. Chingangu stopped Hide on Harrison’s bottom card in a shock, and was then stopped for an inning when they replayed. Hide fought the demons on the so-called safe side of the rope. Everyone in the Herbie Hide company knows about his difficulties, and today he could have gotten help. He, however, is accused of some nasty stuff.
“Herbie has never had a great lifestyle; I tried to make him think differently and change the way he lives,” McDonnell said. Incidentally, the idea of a manicure is to improve concentration.
And then there’s Hide’s crimes and misdemeanors. It’s a disturbing list with convictions, appeals, charges that are both sides, innocent, guilty, vindicated, and in a bad, bad company. It’s a sad list of ugliness.
On a sunny afternoon in 2007, in Hide’s gated community in Las Vegas, I was interviewing him in the kitchen when Crocodile, aka Steve Fitch, wandered from his upstairs bedroom. The Crocodile is Mike Tyson’s eternal fixer and mouthpiece. He’s a player in Las Vegas. I think Hide is Croc’s next project; At the time, Hide was simply sheltering a friend. Crocodile had a baby with him. “He’s a great guy and needs somewhere to bump,” Hide tells me with a shrug.
Hide can really fight. It’s a pity that he doesn’t get noticed because of his boxing. He’s better at fighting crime than ever.
