An outclassed Gary Lockett was beaten all to easily by Kelly Pavelik in his first defence of his WBO and WBC titles.

Trainer Enzo Calzaghe threw the towel in as 31-year-old Lockett went down for the third time.

Lockett was never really in the fight and when the towel came in he looked a forlorn character in the ring his face covered in blood.

Naseem Hamed was once considered to be, pound-for-pound, one of the best fighters in the world.That was until four years ago when he lost to Mexican star Marco Antonio Barrera in Las Vegas in April 2001.Since then he fought once - a year later - in a lacklustre fight, beating Manuel Calvo over 12 boring rounds in May 2002.

Now, over three years since his last professional fight, Hamed talks of coming back.

“Can he do it?” is the question on everyone’s lips. Sugar Ray Leonard did after a long spell away from the ring. Hamed had always compared himself to the likes of Muhammad Ali so why can’t he do it too?

He is still only 31 years old and maybe the lay-off will have helped his body. Recent pictures have shown that he has bulked up, but not in a good way. It was clear he had not been doing any training.

Hamed won the WBO belt in 1995 when he beat Steve Robinson and at that point he had looked unbeatable.

His first step to try and get the American fans excited about him almost ended in disaster when Kevin Kelley had him on the deck three times during their fight, in December 1997.

Hamed put Kelley down three times as well and eventually won by KO, but the once invincible “Prince” was starting to look like he could be beaten. Then along came yours truly, Wayne McCullough, a bantamweight moving up two weight divisions, on Halloween 1998. Hamed had predicted what he was going to do with me - knock me out in less than three rounds. And why not? He was on a long KO winning streak - knocking out 18 opponents in a row - 10 in championship fights. Everyone believed his hype and prediction except for me.

I had never been off my feet, never mind stopped, so I didn’t understand how he felt this way!

Hamed won the fight but I exposed him. He hadn’t been able to knock me out and when he realized I was standing up to his punches, he ran for the remainder of the 12 rounds.

He came close to losing again, against Paul Ingle, but pulled out the KO in that fight too.

Hamed had split with his promoter, Frank Warren, and his trainer, Brendan Ingle, after our fight and he only seemed to get worse with each fight.

Then he met Barrera. The Baby-faced Assassin turned into the boxer that night and made Naz come forward, which made him look terrible. Barrera boxed his way to an easy win.

Now can Hamed come back?

I think if he gets the trainer that is best for him - for conditioning, technique and, most importantly, confidence - that he can.

I know I could do it for him and make him a champion again.

I offered my services to him in the past but I don’t think he thought I was serious - I was and still am!

Legendary trainer Manny Steward believes Naseem Hamed could be ready to fight in three months’ time - and backs the former world champion to make it back to the top. Hamed claims he has been offered a six-fight deal by an American TV network despite having not fought since 2002, but the featherweight’s former handler insists it could be a good move.”

He’s one of the nicest kids I ever worked with,” he said. ”

I’ve only got fond memories of him, not anything bad.”

I think he can be world champion again.”

He’s one of the greatest natural punchers I ever saw in my life and has great co-ordination. It has to be done properly and delicately though.”

A lot of guys come back but they don’t come back the proper way, they rush into it too much. And you have to be careful about the opponents.”

The pair are still on good terms despite the ill-feeling surrounding Hamed’s only defeat against Marco Antonio Barrera in 2001, when they fell out over training methods.”

I’ve not spoken to him for about six months. I still have a good relationship with him and his family, we are very close and I’m one of his biggest fans. Only the fight with Barrera we disagreed on the training methods.”

Training properly, he is a dangerous man,” he added.”

If he asked me to help him I would definitely consider working with him. If we could come up with an agreement on the method of his training I would definitely not pass that up.”

He’s got to be extremely careful because this is an extremely rough, competitive division at 130lbs (super-featherweight).”

When he did train he trained extremely well, he’s a good trainer. For the Barrera fight he was training without sparring because the other trainer had him convinced he didn’t have to do that.”

If he trains hard, I don’t think it will take him more than three months (to be ready).”

Hamed is still only 31 years old and will take great heart from Steward’s comments as he ponders a return to the ring.