\n Hide, 54, appeared at Norwich Magistrates\u2019 Court charged with assault following an incident at his home on Long Lane in Bawburgh, on the outskirts of Norwich.\n<\/p>\n
\n The court was told officers not in uniform and in an unmarked car had gained entry to the sprawling gated-property on July 3 last year.\n<\/p>\n
\n Gated entrance to Bawburgh home where Herbie Hide has lived since 2003 (inset) (Image: Newsquest\/Google)\n<\/p>\n
\n It is alleged when one of the officers, who had not identified themselves as police, had been punched to the face after getting back into the car, said prosecutors.\n<\/p>\n
\n Hide, who held the World Boxing Organisation (WBO) version of the heavyweight title between 1997 and 1999, answered “definitely not guilty\u201d when asked to enter a plea to a single charge of assault of a constable in the execution of his duty.\n<\/p>\n
\n Addressing magistrates, he said: \u201cA man who I didn\u2019t know came into my house speaking to my children.\u201d\n<\/p>\n
\n Herbie Hide, nicknamed The Dancing Destroyer, won the WBO heavyweight championship in 1994 and 1997 (Image: Action Images)\n<\/p>\n
\n Ian Fisher, representing the ex-boxer, said: \u201cPut yourselves in the shoes of any householder who might be somewhat unnerved by the presence of men who refused to say who they were or what they wanted.\u201d\n<\/p>\n
\n Hide was released on unconditional bail until he stands trial at Norwich Magistrates\u2019 Court later this year on December 9.\n<\/p>\n
\n Magistrates apologised that the case could not be listed sooner due to court backlogs.\n<\/p>\n
\n Born Herbert Okechukwu Maduagwu in Nigeria in 1971, Hide moved to Norfolk with his family when he was a child and grew up in the county.\n<\/p>\n
\n Hide became world champion for the first time in 1994, defeating Michael Bentt (Image: PA)\n<\/p>\n
\n Nicknamed the Dancing Destroyer, he won his first WBO heavyweight title against Michael Bentt in 1994 and later regained the title against Tony Tucker in 1997.\n<\/p>\n
\n Returning to the ring in 1998, Hide beat US challenger Damon Reed in less than a minute – described at the time as the fastest-ever heavyweight victory.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Hide, 54, appeared at Norwich Magistrates\u2019 Court charged with assault following an incident at his home on Long…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":351179,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[41],"tags":[2560,101,56,54,55],"class_list":{"0":"post-351178","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-boxing","8":"tag-boxing","9":"tag-sports","10":"tag-uk","11":"tag-united-kingdom","12":"tag-unitedkingdom"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/351178","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=351178"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/351178\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/351179"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=351178"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=351178"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=351178"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}