BoxRec

I didn't like the arrogance but he was brilliant, no mistake. You probably would have to concede UKP4p#1.....I certainly don't go with Lennox Lewis as a lot of people do on the subject.
Chris Eubank some would call arrogant but he's my favourite boxer. I think the difference is Eubank's intelligent - it was good arrogance - funny - daft clothes (smart but daft), big trucks, walking along on his mobile only for the thing to start ringing.....whereas with Naz, who I'm sure is a good bloke at heart, it didn't look intelligent, it was disrespectful, there always had to be a butt of the jokes. I wanted his opponents to beat him for the way he humiliated them in the run up to fights, even the Americans, South Americans etc.....I remember though setting my alarm on my radio in bed at 4am when Kevin Kelley floored him, and then floored him again....and suddenly I was "COME ON NAZ!"

Yeah I remember something similar thinking wtf was going on and why cannot I watch it! I remember radio days quite a bit, footie and boxing .......... I am old, Naz was funny ...... always remember the Billy Hardly phrase and my hope for Billy to go the distance rapidly faded

I felt sorry for that poor Said Lawel - he didn't get to trow one punch, was floored by the very first punch from Hamed and dropped and stopped again after 3 punches, all with the lead hand. Lawel was a decent enough boxer at the time but was never the same again and it took just 35 seconds.

Khaosai-Galaxy wrote:

pablothunder wrote:I was being magnanimous myself when I was going on about his interview.
He was gifted and exciting to watch, but at the time, I lapped up every second of Naz' demise, absolutely loved it. It was reward for the cockiness we were subjected to in the run up.
Barrera proved himself the unmovable one, the one whose quality wasn't in a bubble.
Hamed was mentally changed by what he went through with Barrera, he knew he'd lost to the better man and therefore, his bubble was burst, he wasn't the top man as he sincerely believed he was; he'd crossed the line from having faith in what he could do and believing his own hype.
Barrera was the business, I loved how he ditched the belts to become the people's champion. A class act.

Ditched the titles to become the people's champ

Hmmmmmm

I don't think Naz was affected by the Barrera fight 1 bit. He was already way past his best and beyond caring by then. He was a very rich man with a young family.

The Naz of 97/98 would have sussed out Barerra in 8 rounds.

As exciting and gifted as Naz was (and he certainly was) he would never have beaten Barrera and he knew it, hence no rematch. Barrera's ability to close the distance and counter then put immediate effective pressure on Naz was outstanding and some of the best boxing I've seen. He totally sussed Naz's style. He didn't just beat him, he humiliated him in the exchanges and had him off balance constantly like Bambi on ice.
Post fight Naz finally had the chance to show humility and strength of character as a defeated fighter and return a better man, instead he chose to plow down an innocent man in his mercedes. Class act.

My favourte bit of the Barerra/Hamed bout was when Naseem finally hit Marco flush on the chin and grinned and nodded his head; Barerra just opened his gloves, did a 'so what' gesture and jabbed Hamed back. Barerra was utterly unfazed by Naseems' power which was very surprising after the Junior Jones bouts.

palooka wrote:My favourte bit of the Barerra/Hamed bout was when Naseem finally hit Marco flush on the chin and grinned and nodded his head; Barerra just opened his gloves, did a 'so what' gesture and jabbed Hamed back. Barerra was utterly unfazed by Naseems' power which was very surprising after the Junior Jones bouts.

I think the step up from super bantam to featherweight, made a big difference to his chin.

knew he'd get it off barrera.

the whole night was hilarious.