North Yorkshire's premier seaside resort will be a ghost town on April 10 when Paul Ingle steps into the ring to face Prince Naseem Hamed for the featherweight championship of the world.

Fight promoter Barry Hearn said more than a quarter of the 20,000 tickets for the fight have been sold in Scarborough - Ingle's hometown - alone.

"This is a great fight we have to look forward too and there are not many tickets left, I am glad to say," said Hearn.

"It promises to be a spectacular evening and the response from Scarborough has been phenomenal. We have sold some 5,000 tickets there alone and it shows just what a big draw Paul Ingle is."

As reported in later editions of yesterday's Evening Press, and as we revealed exclusively earlier this month, it was confirmed at the Manchester press conference that boxing legend Thomas 'The Hitman' Hearns will be featuring on the undercard of the Unbeaten versus the Unbeatable

Hearns, the first fighter in history to win five world titles at five different weights, will fight for the International Boxing Organisation cruiserweight title against Nath Miller, the former world champion.

It will be Hearns' first ever professional ring appearance in Britain and he will have Emanuel Steward, Lennox Lewis's trainer, in his corner on fight night.

"We are aware that Tommy is 40 years of age but he is undergoing the strictest medical examinations by the British Boxing Board of Control to make sure he is 100 per cent capable of taking this fight and the signs are very good," said Hearn.

"He has sent a message out to his fans in England that there is no way he can retire before fighting in the UK. It is going to be a night of pugilism and entertainment."

Also added to the undercard was the Commonwealth light welterweight championship between champion Paul Burke, of Preston, and Bernd Paul of London.

Already confirmed are the fights between Leeds' Derek Roche and Scotland's Charlie Kane for the British welterweight championship and the IBO featherweight title fight between two times world champion Junior Jones and Coventry's Richard Evatt.

York light heavyweight Jamie Warters' hopes of fighting on the undercard are still very much alive.

The promoters of the event announced there will be a fight after the main event, with the fighters still to be announced, and there will be three other four or six round contests to use as floater fights during the evening.

Ingle has quelled rumours of a bust-up with manager Frank Maloney over his preparations for his clash with Naz.

As reported exclusively in the Evening Press last week, Ingle turned down Maloney's request that he set up camp in Devon.

But a resolute Ingle, with the backing of his trainer Steve Pollard, stood firm and refused to go, preferring to stay in Yorkshire.

A clearly disgruntled Maloney said he believed Ingle had made a "big mistake".

But Ingle has moved quickly to play down reports of a bust-up.

"Being relaxed at home and getting on with my training in Hull will benefit me more than in Devon," said the Scarborough scrapper. "Frank was a bit upset, we had words, but I am a home bird."

Preparations can hardly have been more different for his flamboyant opponent.

Hamed has locked himself away from his wife and young son by moving into Sheffield's Stakis Hotel - though he admits to breaking his self-imposed ban some Sundays.

"All I do is sleep, eat and train - that's all I've been doing for six weeks," said Hamed. "I'm running every morning and training every night and I have never been so up for a fight like this before."

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