WHEN Herbie Hide smiles and lets out a deep belly laugh, it is impossible not to like him. Impossible, too, to believe that this is the same man many in boxing have written off as crazy.

Brushes with the law and tales of bizarre behaviour have followed Hide around. What is difficult to deny, though, is his talent. Although exposed when he has come up against the very top “big” heavyweights, Hide, who twice held a version of the world heavyweight title, always seemed a cut above the slightly smaller guys.

Returning heavyweights are all the vogue this week, but while Frank Bruno dreams of a contest with Audley Harrison in front of 60,000 spectators this summer, Hide, who also has his sights on Harrison, will make a far more low-profile return to action after two years away in Nottingham tonight.

Like Bruno, Hide has kept his money. Describing himself as a multimillionaire, with homes in his native Norwich, London and Las Vegas, where he is now based, Hide does not seem the kind to get involved in scraps in the street, so why the reputation?

“I’m not as bad as people say I am,” he said. “I can be a naughty boy, but the people in Norwich knew me when I was nothing, so they always want to bring me down. When I am driving around in my Bentley or my Porsche, I am always looking around me expecting to get pulled over by the police — I don’t know why, they know I own it.”

In much the same way as Mike Tyson, Hide had already had a long career when he was still young. With Barry Hearn beating the drum behind him, Hide won the British title at 21, ten years ago, and took the WBO title just a year later, knocking out Michael Bentt at the New Den in seven rounds.

In the nine years since, he has managed only nine contests. He lost that title to Riddick Bowe in Las Vegas and then won it back with a win over Pinklon Thomas in 1997. Two years later, Vitali Klitschko brought his world crashing down when he knocked him out in two rounds.

Probably the most notorious tale about Hide came from the build-up to that bout, when he managed to burn £20,000 in £20 notes, which he had hidden in a lampshade. “I managed to save £15,000 because they could still make out the serial numbers,” he said, laughing at a memory in which few would find humour if it happened to them. “The money was to pay sparring partners and trainers and I hid it there because I had people staying over at my apartment — then someone turned the light on.

“The funny thing is, I smelt burning just as we went out that evening and I checked the oven — then I realised the flat was brand new and I had never used the oven because I always ate out, so I didn’t think anything of it until we came back and found the place was full of smoke.”

The last time Hide was seen in action was on the undercard to Harrison’s second professional bout, against Derek McCafferty. Hide was knocked out in two rounds by Joseph Chingangu — the end coming soon after he was hit after the referee had ordered the boxers to separate. The memories of that are not good. “The referee was useless and my trainer was useless,” Hide said. “My instinct was to get up and fight on — but he hit me as a defenceless target. He should have been disqualified or I should have at least been given time to recover.”

There is more than a bit of the conspiracy theorist about Hide — his latest one involves Harrison. “They’ve changed his age — I think he is 34, not 31,” Hide said. “When I used to spar against him, he was older than me — now I’m older than him!

“At that time all they wanted me to do was to keep shouting out for Danny Williams, to keep the pressure off Audley — no one was looking out for me. They knew I had beaten Audley up in the gym, so they just wanted to keep me quiet.”

Now he is back with a promise to beat every British heavyweight out there, starting with McCafferty tonight and finishing, he hopes, with Harrison.

“I want to beat them all up. Basically, Harrison’s fat, can’t fight and can’t knock anyone out, he’s not strong enough to smash an egg with a baseball bat.”

Trained by Mike McCallum and Eddie Mustafa Muhammad, the former world champions, with “Crocodile” Fitch, a long-time member of Tyson’s entourage, as his main cheerleader, Hide still believes he has something to prove.

“I never retired, I never went away,” Hide laughed. “This is my time, no one is going to keep me quiet now.”

LINKS

TELEVISION: Eastman v Dann, Hide v McCafferty and Froch v Monaghan, tonight, BBC One, 11.40pm-1.45am