22.04.04 – By Elliot Worsell: With so much emphasis nowadays on top young boxers remaining active and busy, it is somewhat surprising to hear the utterances of a former titleholder who has one finger placed firmly over the slow-mo button. Former WBF Welterweight champion James Hare is embarking on a crucial stage in his eight year professional career that has seen him rally to 28 victories before crashing down to earth with a thud against Mexican dangerman Cosme Rivera last December. In a contest the ever improving Hare was expected to win, Rivera shocked the form books, flooring and stopping the ‘Robertown Rocket’ in ten one sided rounds, pick-pocketing his WBF bauble and firing holes at the Yorkshireman’s cherished unbeaten record in the process.
Now the real work begins for the amiable 27-year-old stylist. Fleet footed, level headed, and the ability to speak with the same kind of grace he displays in the ring, Hare was a man of whom a big future was predicted. Thing’s change quickly though, and rather than dwelling in the past, James has dusted himself down, recharged the proverbial batteries and is ready to rumble again. First up in the firing line? Welsh trier Jason Williams on May 1.
‘He’s not a bad fighter, and is a shade bigger than me, but I’ll just have to be nice and sharp, find my range and do a number on him.’ Hare explains. ‘I’ve been in training for a good few weeks now, since Mark (Hobson) and Dale (Robinson) were finishing off training for their bouts on March 13. I’ve just had a week up in Scotland sparring Kevin Anderson and Barry Morrison, which has helped me get my sharpness. You never know how you feel, or how well you can perform until you get into the ring on the night of the fight to be honest, but at this moment in time I feel fresh and have been doing some good work in the gym, so all signs are great.’
‘I saw Williams box Derek Roche last year, and to be honest I thought he would give Derek more of a fight than he actually did, but Roche managed to back him up quite easily and stopped him. Derek can whack a bit though, so there’s no real shame there. Williams has boxed up at light middleweight, and will have been in with some decent guys, so I can’t take anything for granted.’
Hare couldn’t be accused of taking the first man to defeat him, lightly. He was only too aware of the danger Rivera possessed. However, that didn’t make it any easier to negate the razor sharp skills and street hardened attitude of the rough and tough Mexican puncher.
‘He was a lot better that everyone expected.’ The down to earth welterweight admitted. ‘At the end of the day everyone thinks the WBF title is a ‘Mickey Mouse’ title, and all the opponents who fight for it, will lay down. I’ve never classed myself as a proper world champion, but the title is only as good as the two people fighting for it, and Cosme Rivera was a world class fighter, and I think that surprised a lot of people, me included. To be honest I haven’t had many soft touches in defence of that WBF title. I’ve boxed some decent level guys like Rivera, Dzuman, Bergman and Holland, and have been given some decent tests.’
‘Rivera was a real dangerman. In January, me, Mark and Dale went to one of Tommy’s (Gilmour) shows and we had agents telling us about this guy (Rivera) saying that the only reason he hadn’t been boxing very often before he beat me was because he couldn’t get fights. No one wanted to fight him. By all accounts his team had approached lots of the top welterweights, but none of them wanted anything to do with him. I suppose if you’re going to take risks and fight guys like him, you need a world title to be up for grabs, otherwise the reward doesn’t match the risk.’
‘We got a video before the fight of River against Diosbelys Hurtado, and he pushed and forced Hurtado back for the whole fight. Against me though, he stood off and boxed me, which surprised everyone I think. Rivera’s not just a face first Mexican as many people thought, he’s a good technician.’
The smooth boxing Hare knows all about being a ‘good technician’, he makes his livelihood from being one. Seemingly void of the one punch, lights out power of Belfast rival Neil Sinclair, and the down and dirty infighting of welterweight friend Jawaid Khaliq, Hare has had to rely on using fancy footwork, stinging blows, and angles yet to be picked up by the common protractor. Back in his commonwealth title days, African beanpole Monney Seka was befuddled, Aussie Julian Holland was shocked and Earl Foskin was in need of a place to lie down. Upon picking up the lightly regarded, moneymaking WBF strap, Hare revelled in the limelight. Defeating Roman Dzuman saw Hare at his shake, rattle and roll best, making the tough and game Ukranian appear cumbersome and lacklustre, just months after he’d given Hare’s welterweight rival Jawaid Khaliq all he could handle in the Nottingham puncher’s home town.
The likeable Hare soon had tongue’s wagging in the boxing trade and had many waxing lyrical about just how far he could go in world terms. Jan Bergman, once a big punching dangerman of the world light welterweight division and a man who united the ring canvas and future superstar Zab Judah for the first time, was drafted in to test Hare, but there was something eerily ‘former’ about the rugged old South African. Hare produced a dominate job on the long in the tooth puncher, flattening him in two rounds, and showing that not only was he one of the most aesthetically pleasing boxers in Britain, but he could also be one of the most exciting and explosive.
A fighter’s stock can only rise so far before cracks start to appear however, and James Hare was no different. Against modest Hungarian Jozsef Matolcsi, the heavy backlog of fighting fixtures Hare had been forced to engage in during 2003 appeared to take its toll. Matolcsi was conquered in ten rounds, but not before the usually sturdy and solid Hare picked himself off the floor in the fourth. The minor Matolcsi shock was the smoke before the fire. Cosme Rivera was flown over from Mexico following a year of inactivity, and unfortunately packed with him, two flaming fists that Hare simply failed to distinguish. If Rivera brought air miles on his way to the UK, Hare had notched up his fair share of ring miles. Five demanding fights in ten months to be precise. Everybody needs a day off work once in a while, and for Hare, that widely appreciated great work ethic of his, backfired.
‘Before that last fight on the 4th (December), the longest time I had ever been out of a boxing gym was four weeks, and that was for the summer break. Since boxing that Monney Seka in January 2002, I’ve always been ticking over and constantly looking forward to fights. Boxing is my job, it’s all I think about day in day out, and at that time, I was boxing non-stop. In the end it just got a bit too much and I paid the price.’
‘I’m not one to make excuses, but the heavy schedule I had last year did take something away from me. However, I’m not going to try and take anything away from Rivera. I personally thought the kid was a very good fighter who just got the better of me on the night, when I wasn’t at my best. If I’d fought him three months earlier, around the time when I boxed Dzuman, I’m not saying I’d have beaten Rivera, but I’d have definitely given a better account of myself.’
Stockwell light middleweight Richard Williams can attest to the acknowledged view that most rematches often follow the pattern of the first. Williams, like Hare, had his impressive run of results torn to shreds at the fists of a dangerman from foreign soil. Unlike Williams however, Hare is in no rush to step back in with his Mexican nemesis.
‘I don’t think it would be a wise move to go back in with him straight away. I’ve had people telling me I should jump straight back in and put the record straight but I think it’s important to re-establish myself, and win one or two fights, have a break and a little think over the summertime, then go for a title again after that. We’ll see what happens with Jav (Jawaid Khaliq) and the IBO, and we’ll see what Rivera is planning to do. There’s a bit of unfinished business there definitely, but there’s no rush.’
The often talked about dual with Jawaid Khaliq is always on fight fans’ agenda’s when they analyse the once fascinating domestic welterweight landscape. With Neil Sinclair in limbo, Khaliq stalling, Hare suffering defeat and stern Irish southpaw Eamonn Magee suffering unfortunate injury, the once glittering British welterweight division has seemingly lost it’s edge. That’s not to say that a prospective Hare-Khaliq fight is any less mouth watering.
‘I don’t know what immediate plans they’ve got in place for Jav at the moment, but most people know the score between us two and know that it is unlikely that we will fight. However that’s not to say there’s no chance of it happening, because you can never write anything off in boxing. Money talks as they say. To be honest though, on a personal level, it’s not actually a fight I would like, because we both get on well and are friends.’
So with no possible clash with Khaliq in the near future, and five months away from the ring since the Rivera reversal, what has home-loving James Hare been up to?
‘Well after the fight, I went over the tape and reflected back on what happened and what went wrong. Since then it’s just been a case of picking myself up and regrouping. I got beat my a sound fighter, it wasn’t a great performance by myself, for whatever reason, I haven’t got a great deal to prove because I’ve proven in the past that I can live with a decent level of opposition, and although I did lose to Rivera, I feel he is a very good fighter in his own right.’
‘I had all of December off, had a break over New Year, then had all of January out of the gym. I had a good two and a half months where I didn’t even go anywhere near a gym and just kept away from everything, taking my mind off boxing completely.’
That ‘mind’ that Hare speaks of, which has seen him cruise to so many punch perfect exhibition’s of sweet skills in the past, must now be re-focused on the thing that plugged up the whole of his 2003 calendar – boxing. No longer will Hare top the bill in his hometown in front of adoring thousands, but on May 1, underneath the interesting Jason Cook-Kevin Bennett dustup, James must shift back to autopilot and rebuild.
‘I try and approach every fight the same really, always looking to get the win and move on to the next stage. I’m on a bit of a journey at the moment, and there’s a going to be a lot of ups and downs. Until I pack up, anything can happen, and if I don’t aspire to beat the best guys out there, then there’s no point being in the game. I’ve never really been one to say ‘I will do this, or I will do that’, but I do have ambitions still, and I think I’ve beaten a few decent kids along the way. We’re basically starting up again on May 1 and seeing what comes of it. Who knows what’s around the corner?’