Herbie Hide

Herbie Hide
Data
Birth Name	Herbert Okechukwu Maduagwu
Fight name	The Dancing Destroyer
Weight class	Cruiser weight
nationality	Nigerian - British
birthday	August 27, 1971
place of birth	Owerri
style	Left delivery
size	1.88 m
Combat Statistics
Struggles	53
Victories	49
Knockout victories	43
Defeats	4th
Profile in the BoxRec database

Herbie Hide (* 27. August 1971 in Owerri , Nigeria as Herbert Okechukwu Maduagwu ) is a former Nigerian-British professional boxer. He was a two-time WBO - Heavyweight champion . Most recently he fought in the cruiserweight division .

Amateur career

As an amateur, Hide only played 10 fights with 8 wins and 2 losses. In 1989 he was runner-up at the British Amateur Heavyweight Championship, losing to Henry Akinwande in the final .

Professional career

Hide made his professional debut at the age of 18 in 1989 and initially beat 25 largely unknown opponents. He had a high KO rate , speed and punching power, but was knocked to the ground for the first time by Craig Peterson himself. Already in this phase his rather poor ability to take things became apparent.

Two WBO titles won

After 25 victories, he was able to become WBO world champion on March 19, 1994 against Michael Bentt . However, in his first title defense on March 11, 1995, he lost the belt to Riddick Bowe . He fell seven times in that fight before being finally tallied in the sixth round.

After winning two development fights, he was allowed to box again for the vacant WBO belt on June 28, 1997 against former IBF World Champion Tony Tucker , as Bowe had previously resigned the title. He won by technical knockout in the second round.

After two title defenses, including against Willi Fischer , he went KO against Vitali Klitschko in the second round in 1999 and lost the title again.

Resignation and new beginning in the cruiserweight division

He initially retired from boxing and made a comeback two years later. Already his second comeback fight in September 2001 he lost to Joseph Chingangu by knockout and remained inactive for another year and a half. In 2003 he was able to defeat Chingangu by first round knockout, but after another premature defeat in March 2004 against the unknown Lithuanian Mendauga Kulikauskas , his career seemed to be over.

In September 2006, Hide returned to the ring after a two-year absence. He has been boxing at cruiserweight since then, which was now achievable for him without too much loss of substance due to the increased weight limit (200 pounds instead of the earlier 190) and in which he calculated more chances of attacking the world's best again. Herbie Hide is now under contract with Arena Box-Promotion . After his return to the ring, he fought 4 fights against opponents who were built up, all of which he won early. On December 23, 2007 he fought for the vacant WBC international cruiserweight title against Mikhail Nasyrov and defeated him by TKO in round 6.

He defended his belt three times: against Rüdiger May , whom he defeated by TKO in round 2, against Ehinomen Ehikhamenor and against Nuri Seferi .

In three other non-title fights against Aleksejs Kosobokovs, Lukasz Rusiewicz and Sandro Siproshvili, he was able to leave the ring victorious.

Special

On September 18, 1993, he won over 10 rounds on points against Martin Everett ; until his fight against Ehinomen Ehikhamenor on May 30, 2008, this was his only point win of his 47 fights up to that point in time.

Hide has been known to box unfairly at times. It has already happened that he continued to hit opponents who were lying on the ground or looked up after the referee's command "Break" , which meant that the fight was stopped for a brief moment.

Since the beginning of 2009, Graciano Rocchigiani was his new coach, who asked him to box more disciplined. Hide has been boxing more calmly since then and wins on points, which is unusual for the otherwise strong and fast Hide, who usually defeated his opponents prematurely.

See also

• List of heavyweight boxing champions
• List of fights for world heavyweight boxing titles

Web links

• Herbie Hide in the BoxRec database

predecessor	Office	successor
Michael Bentt	Heavyweight Boxing Champion ( WBO ) March 19, 1994–11. March 1995	Riddick Bowe

predecessor	Office	successor
Henry Akinwande	Heavyweight Boxing Champion ( WBO ) June 28, 1997–26. June 1999	Vitali Klitschko