Hamed eyes comeback

Riath (left) says Naseem is ready to fight

By James Standley BBC Sport Online

Naseem Hamed will make an announcement about his future within weeks, according to his manager.

Hamed's brother and manager, Riath, confirmed that Hamed intended to fight again, but refused to be drawn on rumours that Michael Brodie would be the next opponent.

"At this moment in time we haven't finalised anything," Riath told BBC Sport Online.

I don't know who said that we haven't taken Tapia

Riath Hamed

"That fight (with Brodie) has been talked about for quite a while and the intention is still to have the fight sometime, but at this moment in time nothing has been confirmed.

"We've got a whole list of opponents lined up. So if it's not Brodie it will be somebody else."

Riath listed Johnny Tapia, Marco Antonio Barrera and Frankie Toledo as other possible opponents.

And he dismissed reports that Hamed had turned down the chance to fight Tapia, who meets Barrera in Las Vegas on 2 November.

Barrera fights friend Tapia

"I don't know who said that we haven't taken Tapia. We were talking with him and we actually put an offer to his wife and to him personally.

"They came to us and offered us a proposal, we came back to them and offered them a counter-proposal and then they never came back to us.

We're still on course to carry on

Riath Hamed

"Tapia didn't come back to us, and that's official. That was exactly six weeks ago."

While Riath said that Naseem would "definitely" be interested in fighting Tapia, he said that the veteran American was just one of a number of options for the Sheffield star.

"Tapia was an excellent choice but obviously they didn't come back to us and he's gone to do a deal with Barrera so that's taken him out of the loop.

"But we're still in negotiations, we've still got fighters and we're still on course to carry on."