Kid Galahad determined to grow up like Prince Naseem
Published:Scott Quigg’s relinquishing of his British super-bantamweight title in May has set up a contest that boxing fans on the isle will have been anticipating for weeks.
Saturday night’s televised contest between Kid Galahad and James ‘Jazza’ Dickens brings together two of the country’s premium and unbeaten young fighters, with Galahad another prodigy from Mick Hennessy’s stable following the likes of Tyson Fury and James DeGale.
Fighting on his own promoter’s show and close to his Sheffield home in Rotherham, the 23-year-old – real name Barry Awad – will have the crowd on his side as he takes on Liverpool’s Dickens.
Having been schooled at the famed Ingle gym in Sheffield, Galahad is following in the footsteps of the likes of Kell Brook and Johnny Nelson, but it is another fighter from both the gym and the area who he cites as his inspiration.
“I met Naz [Prince Naseem Hamed] at a mosque in Sheffield and I had never tried boxing,” he said this week. “He told me to go to Brendan Ingle’s gym.
“So I did and became dedicated to the sport – and here I am fighting for the British title.”
Prominent throughout the late 90s, Hamed was credited with creating much of the boom around boxing at the time, and Galahad can only hope to follow suit in front of a terrestrial television audience on Channel 5.
Opponent Dickens is priced at 15/8 and will be anything but a pushover though, especially having won his first 16 fights since turning professional.
His energetic and fast style will make life tough for Galahad, but the hometown favourite should just have enough to see off the Liverpudlian and edge towards the world’s top 10 at super-bantamweight.
All Odds and Markets are correct as of the date of publication
