Naseem Hamed

[Tommy Gunn13]

As someone stated earlier i heard bout him&Eubank falling out...Never heard bout the Thompson inncident tho......Naz was a TOP fighter,love him or hate him he pulled the non boxing fans into the game....wot a puncher,i loved watching him&watching the dvd earlier just made me realise how good he actually was

[ThereByTheGrace]

Hamed was an asshole pure and simple. Barrera bullied and battered him and any of the other top fighters would've done him as well.

[Jon Saxon]

any of the other top fighters would've done him as well.

Rubbish, Naz was as good as it gets.

By the time the Barrera fight came a around he was already slipping, his reflex's were slower in the Sanchez fight and was intoxicated with his own power.

Had he kept the Hunger (and stopped blowing up between fights) he would have beat Barrera.

Has was an arshole though.

[mahatma]

he was good but was exposed by barrea

[liamlion]

any of the other top fighters would've done him as well.

Rubbish, Naz was as good as it gets.

By the time the Barrera fight came a around he was already slipping, his reflex's were slower in the Sanchez fight and was intoxicated with his own power.

Had he kept the Hunger (and stopped blowing up between fights) he would have beat Barrera.

Has was an arshole though.

Completely agree. The Naz that boxed Steve Robinson would have beat Barrera IMO

[NazNaci1]

Great natural ability, elastic like flexiblity and chilling power and great speed.

Watch his earlier fights and you can see all of these attributes.

Was still awesome in the early part of his promo deal with Warren, then started to go downhill.

He stopped listening to Ingle and his brothers seemed to think they knew the boxing business, so he started to listen to them.

His persona was, in the beginning, a cheecky chappy type , this grew to more bombastic preportions as he went on, until it began manifesting itself as just nasty (eg vs Robinson & Sanchez).

Regarding Eubank, I think they had an altercation and Naz punched Eubank and split his lip (didnt knock him down or anything) and Eubank, apparently raised his hand as if he was going to slap him but didn't, as Naz scappered (heard Eubank say this somewhere, though cant remember where to be honest).

Didn't know about Thompson, but Naz was definately wise not to push him too far.

Great fighter, but as ppl have said, ego ruined him although he seems more at ease and I do believe, today, he admits to mistakes he made during his fighting period.

[liamlion]

Great natural ability, elastic like flexiblity and chilling power and great speed.

Watch his earlier fights and you can see all of these attributes.

Was still awesome in the early part of his promo deal with Warren, then started to go downhill.

He stopped listening to Ingle and his brothers seemed to think they knew the boxing business, so he started to listen to them.

His persona was, in the beginning, a cheecky chappy type , this grew to more bombastic preportions as he went on, until it began manifesting itself as just nasty (eg vs Robinson & Sanchez).

Regarding Eubank, I think they had an altercation and Naz punched Eubank and split his lip (didnt knock him down or anything) and Eubank, apparently raised his hand as if he was going to slap him but didn't, as Naz scappered (heard Eubank say this somewhere, though cant remember where to be honest).Didn't know about Thompson, but Naz was definately wise not to push him too far.

Great fighter, but as ppl have said, ego ruined him although he seems more at ease and I do believe, today, he admits to mistakes he made during his fighting period.

It was an incident at an airport. Naz had his two world title belts (WBO & IBF) on his luggage trolley and flaunted them at Eubank to which Eubank responded by grabbing one of the belts and slinging it... allegedly

[Crease]

A shame he was destroyed by his own ego. I'm not sure he ever had the beating of Barrera, but he would surely have made a better job of it under Ingle.

Unfortunately Naz bought into his own hype, and believed he could just smash anyone put in front of him.

I agree, if Naz fought Barrera 5 times, Ireckon he couldhave gone 3-2 either way.

He was certainlya match for Barrera, a match for anyone for that mtter.

[winkveron]

I read a bit of a conspiracy theory that said Naz couldn't have carried on at the top level because of 9/11 due to his continuous banging of the drum for Allah / Islam. I think it's a bit far fetched personally. Yes, he never did fight in America post-9/11 but I think that just coincided with his slide.

I loved Naz by the way. Re-watched a few of his old fights the other day and reminisced about how ground-breaking he was in terms of his ring walk, entrance and style etc. I grew up on his Saturday night ITV shows. Good times!

[Emmseegee]

Naz was at his worst against barrera who was approaching his best.
Naz still went the distance with a warrior who was destroying most people. By this point in his career naz had started yo believe everything he had was a gift from Allah and had gave up on all the hard work required at any level of boxing never mind world title level. He chased after Barrera looking for a one punch knock out that was never going 2 happen.
Naz lost convincingly yes but his form was so poor on the night that i believe he would've been capable of beating Barrera if there was a rematch.
Only thing that matters is the record books tho which sadly show Barrera winning!
Still, credit 2 naz. While he was kicking about boxing occasionally stole the back pages away from football!

Can anyone remember wen his last fight actually was? I'm sure he wouldv already been 20 stone by the time of the terror attacks anyway..... Or in jail

[Gazmac81]

i saw a picture of my mate at Braehead next to Naz and my mate is about 18stone and made naz look bit thinner lol

Naz was at his worst against barrera who was approaching his best.
Naz still went the distance with a warrior who was destroying most people. By this point in his career naz had started yo believe everything he had was a gift from Allah and had gave up on all the hard work required at any level of boxing never mind world title level. He chased after Barrera looking for a one punch knock out that was never going 2 happen.
Naz lost convincingly yes but his form was so poor on the night that i believe he would've been capable of beating Barrera if there was a rematch.
Only thing that matters is the record books tho which sadly show Barrera winning!
Still, credit 2 naz. While he was kicking about boxing occasionally stole the back pages away from football!

Can anyone remember wen his last fight actually was? I'm sure he wouldv already been 20 stone by the time of the terror attacks anyway..... Or in jail

[Gazmac81]

it was 18th may 2002 his last fight

[dondada]

Naz was mentally done with the game quite a bit before the Barrera fight.

The best of Naz would have beaten the best of almost anyone around that weight, IMO. But we didn't actually see much of the best at the very top level at all.

Shame he imploded (and then physically exploded).

[Emmseegee]

Gazmac81. Bet that mate of yours likes to train with u 2 make him look fitter? Lol

[Captain Hook]

Loved him, and in my opinion he and Lennox Lewis are our two greatest boxing exports.

For flamboyance, excitement, thrills, power and dominance, nobody came close to him pre-Barrera.

I've never seen anyone get decked, get up and come back at an opponent the way he did (Sanchez, Kelley)

[Andypittcov]

What a fighter!! Awesome!!

He could of been so much more but then so could hundreds of others...

[McCannW14]

Hamed was an asshole pure and simple. Barrera bullied and battered him and any of the other top fighters would've done him as well.

Thats about the size of it. Naz was very good but his best wins were against names who were on the slide ever so slightly.

When he fought a top man close to the top of his game, he had no answer, and never came back from it.

[McCannW14]

Naz was at his worst against barrera who was approaching his best.
Naz still went the distance with a warrior who was destroying most people. By this point in his career naz had started yo believe everything he had was a gift from Allah and had gave up on all the hard work required at any level of boxing never mind world title level. He chased after Barrera looking for a one punch knock out that was never going 2 happen.
Naz lost convincingly yes but his form was so poor on the night that i believe he would've been capable of beating Barrera if there was a rematch.
Only thing that matters is the record books tho which sadly show Barrera winning!
Still, credit 2 naz. While he was kicking about boxing occasionally stole the back pages away from football!

Can anyone remember wen his last fight actually was? I'm sure he wouldv already been 20 stone by the time of the terror attacks anyway..... Or in jail

Why is it that so many people say once a fighter gets outclassed he was "at his worst" "passed it" etc?

Naz got outclassed by Barrera because Barrera was, and always was the better fighter. End of story. Stop making these excuses for him, its embarrassing and pathetic.

[Bricks]

His personal life etc defo isn't squeaky clean but judging him purely as a fighter/entertainer I can confidently say there won't be anyone in the same league!
Not a British fighter anyway!

yeah there isnt a british fighter in the same league when it comes to having so much talent, shouting so much about how easy it was to get unified and how he will win titles up to super middle,and how he needs a superfight.......and than bailing out when the competition arrived.....

Plenty of british fighters achieved more. Mcguigan was a better fw and beat 3 fighters in pedroza,laporte and taylor better than anyone naz beat. Froch and calzaghe achieved more. Benns wins over mclellan and barkley were more than what naz beat.

I could go on and on..... Naz had more talent than any british fighter.....so its a shame it ended like it did. Still he was brilliant in looking after his money outside the ring, hes a great family man,he had no financial reason left to fight and hed been fighting non stop since he was 7.

[orbtastic]

The Eubank thing was at an airport - He basically made some comment to Eubank that he had a belt and he didn't etc. Eubank slapped him with an open hand to show him some respect and it either got out of hand or blown out of proportion by the press. Eubank talks about it in his book.

The Thompson thing was for the annual WBO convention. Again, covered in another book. It might have been Johnny Nelson's? I can't remember.

[NazNaci1]

I think Naz also said, one of th reasons he quit was his hands. Not sure though.

[orbtastic]

At the point Junior Jones knocked him out, I think most people said Hamed could do the same thing. MAB adjusted his style and tactics from that point on.

[Andypittcov]

NAZ was 0% focused for MAB, MAB was 100% focused for NAZ

don't get me wrong I rate barrera highly but naz with a screwed on head would have beat him IMO

[Jeff Thomas]

NAZ was 0% focused for MAB, MAB was 100% focused for NAZ

don't get me wrong I rate barrera highly but naz with a screwed on head would have beat him IMO

Based on what exactly? The only performance where Naz appeared anywhere near his optimum at featherweight came against a terrified Vuyani Bungu and an outclassed Steve Robinson who was too in awe to make any real inroads in the fight.

Barrera was a class above- a truly world class performer and he was better in almost every department then naz. I was a naz fan but people over-rate him.

[Datsue]

I remember Naz laughing at a presser for the fight, saying that he wanted the moral winner of the Morales-Barrera fight, I got the sense that they felt they were picking through the remains of MAB and putting Morales to one side for the time being, bad move, they should have gone for Morales as he'd have hammered him.

Definitely. I think Morales --bless his socks-- was always too Macho/stupid to do what MAB did. He had the tools of course, but he'd end up doing at some point what he did against Pacquiao in the last round of their first fight --offering his chin up on a plate-- & Naz would've spattered him across the canvas imo.