Hass Hamdan opens up on his arrest, heavyweight water bombed, boxing barista eyeing national title

Rising boxing star Hass Hamdan has spoken for the first time about his arrest while watching his brother fight at an amateur event last month.

Brendan Bradford

@1bbradfo

3 min read

October 14, 2023 - 12:00PM

Hass Hamdan is hoping to move on from his arrest last month. Picture: No Limit Boxing

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Hass Hamdan has broken his silence following his arrest last month, saying he wants to use his fight on Tim Tszyu’s undercard on Sunday to put it all behind him.

Hamdan was arrested on September 24 for an incident while watching his brother fight at an amateur event in Sydney.

Hamdan, whose father Nader is an Aussie boxing icon, was charged with common assault after he allegedly threw a water bottle at a ringside boxing official.

The 25-year-old year old, who won the Australian super lightweight title in June, spoke about his arrest this week, saying he just wants to move on with his career.

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“When I won the title, I only got a small five centimetre write up, but I had a little hiccup outside of boxing, and there’s a whole page with my face on it,” he told this masthead. “It’s a learning experience.

“I’ve done something I shouldn’t have done, but I’m learning on the job. If I make the same mistake more than once, then I’m an idiot, but I’ll learn from it.

“It happened and I can’t change the past, but I can dictate the future, and if I’m on my best behaviour, in the gym and listening to the people around me who care about me, then I’ll go a long way.”

Hamdan in action on Thursday. Picture: Zain Mohammed/No Limit Boxing

Hamdan’s trainer, Hall of Famer Jeff Fenech, says the incident was blown out of proportion.

“We’ve got so many witnesses saying this guy was swearing at Hass, telling him to, ‘Get the f**k out of the corner’, and just being aggressive,” Fenech told this masthead.

“Hass’ brother is in the middle of a fight, they’re belting the sh** out of each other.

“Hass picks up a bottle of water, goes to throw it and it slips out of his hand and hits the guy.

“If that’s assault, we’re in a bad place.

“Hass rang the people and apologised. He regrets what he did, it was a heat of the moment thing when your brother’s in a fight and there’s someone yelling and swearing at him.”

Danvers Cuschieri and Ben Savva at Thursday's open workouts. Picture: Zain Mohammed/No Limit Boxing

Hamdan says his old man also had a quiet word to him.

“He just said, ‘Hass, you’re in the eye now, you’re my son and you’re trained by Jeff’,” he said.

“I’ve got a bit of a reputation to uphold.”

Hamdan gets the first chance to put things right when he faces Danvers Cuschieri on the undercard to Tszyu’s WBO super-welterweight world title defence.

Pre-fight tension has threatened to boil over all week when Fenech and Danvers’ trainer Ben Savva’s long-simmering rivalry heated up, but Hamdan is focused on the job at hand.

“They can scream and shout from the outside, but they can’t fight for us,” Hamdan said.

“It’s me versus Danvers in there and I’m going to show him how it’s done.”

Danvers Cuschier's trainer, Ben Savva, gets into it with Hass Hamdan at Friday's press conference. Picture: Zain Mohammed/No Limit Boxing

Heavyweight hitter water bombed

In a card stacked full of scary humans, no one is scarier than heavyweight slugger Toese Vousiutu.

Vousiutu is a knockout artist who fights Julius Long on Sunday, but his intimidating presence didn’t put off one foolhardy punter this week.

Vousiutu was waiting to do his open workout at the Pacific Fair shopping mall on Thursday evening when someone hurled a water balloon from the balcony above.

The projectile narrowly missed hitting Vousiutu and his entourage, and the culprit made his only smart move of the day by hightailing it out of there.

That left a collection of innocent, but very worried looking punters to redirect Vousiutu’s angry stare away from them.

“I think they recognised me from Melbourne and know I’m not used to the heat and tried to cool us down a bit,” Vousiutu joked to this masthead.

“As long as they don’t do it in front of my face, that’s the main thing.”

Someone threw a water balloon at Toese Vousiutu. Picture: Zain Mohammed/No Limit Boxing

Boxing barista eyeing national title

Amber Amelia will take part in history on Sunday by fighting fellow Indigenous boxer Shanell Dargan for the Australian super bantamweight title.

The fight will be the first time two female boxers have fought for a newly designed Australian belt which now features the Indigenous flag.

The Australian National Boxing Federation voted to add the Indigenous flag to all its belts last year, with changes taking effect over the past two months.