Naseem Hamed

[TopGun]

Would the yanks really worship a Muslim little guy who lost his only elite level fight

This was pre 911 so the world was a different place but I know what you are saying, I believe they would have loved him. Mayweatehr even admited he copied him

[bynino]

He talks really well now. Love his interview were he said he was called the prince, because in his eyes his dad was always the king. Loved his style, as a 14 yo kid always watching plucky Brits, he was a breath of fresh air. Bit like Connor I’m UFC. Started to believe his own hype.

[Ruthless-RKO]

Would the yanks really worship a Muslim little guy who lost his only elite level fight

This was pre 911 so the world was a different place but I know what you are saying, I believe they would have loved him. Mayweatehr even admited he copied him

Pretty sure Amir Khan isn't hated in the US.. His prime years were in the US..

I don't know if the hardcore boxing fans would have cared..

I know with Nas it's a little different. He used to use Arabic phrases in his post fight interviewers.

I saw people hating on AJ, a non-Muslim, when he posted himself in the Dubai mosque, and also when he said Bismillah after he beat Ruiz..

Some people get offended waaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaayy too quickly.

[bynino]

‘I wanna eat his children..praise be allah’

[bigjack]

Oh he was a brilliant entertainer. Exciting, quite chaotic style, all wrong in a way but that made him better to watch.

People did want to see him come a cropper though! I think he's one of those miss them when they're gone kind of characters.

What happened at the end though? One comeback fight after MAB then quit, I've not seen that fight but was it poor?

Terrible fight,boring as hell.

[Ruthless-RKO]

‘I wanna eat his children..praise be allah’

Lewis didn’t even have any children at the time aswell.

[Steveh583]

Oh he was a brilliant entertainer. Exciting, quite chaotic style, all wrong in a way but that made him better to watch.

People did want to see him come a cropper though! I think he's one of those miss them when they're gone kind of characters.

What happened at the end though? One comeback fight after MAB then quit, I've not seen that fight but was it poor?

Yep, so was Naz that night.

Calvo for the European was it?

His timing seemed well off, not sure if it was the lay off or that he'd been on the slide for quite some time before that.

Calvo was the European champ at the time, but the fight was for the IBO title. God I'm a sad man.

[THEBUTCH]

Hamed was booed after the Calvo snoozefest.

Naz called the paying fans ignorant, which they were not ! Hamed mouthed off as usual about what he would do to Calvo but when the first bell went he quickly realised Calvo wasn't going anywhere, then changed his tune post fight claiming he was putting on a boxing show for the fans. What a w@nker !

[jameswilson]

People are right that if he was American he’d have been worshiped. Americans love their own acting like wankers and trash talking but when someone comes to America and gives it to them and then wins then they can’t take it.

I’d imagine the fact he was always spouting verses from the Quran during the ring announcements won’t have helped either as his loss to Barrera wasn’t long before 9/11 was it.


Some of his fights were incredible tho. He had the usual spout of allegedly defences but he also won all 4 belts at some point (he usually vacated unless it was the WBO by the looks of it.)

He did defeat the WBA champion Vazquez but the belt wasn't on the line.

You are correct so I take that back.

Vasquaez had held that title for some 3 or 4 years previous to the Hamed fight. A proper road warrior when you look at his career. Fought for titles and defended titles in Japan and Korea, all over Europe and the Americas.

[Webbo911]

Oh he was a brilliant entertainer. Exciting, quite chaotic style, all wrong in a way but that made him better to watch.

People did want to see him come a cropper though! I think he's one of those miss them when they're gone kind of characters.

What happened at the end though? One comeback fight after MAB then quit, I've not seen that fight but was it poor?

Yep, so was Naz that night.

Calvo for the European was it?

His timing seemed well off, not sure if it was the lay off or that he'd been on the slide for quite some time before that.

Calvo was the European champ at the time, but the fight was for the IBO title. God I'm a sad man.

Wasn't 100% and couldn't bothered checking.
Knew someone on here would know.

[coghaugen11]

Looked good against Belcastro and Robinson.

[coghaugen11]

And a far bigger star than Roy Jones was around 98-00.

[TheGman]

Proper annoying fckin w@nker but id get up for his fights

[coghaugen11]

He was a horrible little p-rick. The Yanks considered him laughable skill-wise.

[tonyevs]

Fantastic puncher but cringe worthy to watch & hear at times.
Hugely overrated guy who feasted on old and past it names .. but got found out when trying to add another old fighter who wasn't quite past it as people expected.

Appealed mainly to young kids at that time, or the casuals who also rated Bruno very highly.

[tonyevs]

. I’d imagine the fact he was always spouting verses from the Quran during the ring announcements won’t have helped either as his loss to Barrera wasn’t long before 9/11 was it.

Made absolutely no difference back then. As you point out - it was before 9/11.

Plus Tyson had converted prior to that too, and much as now, he is idolised.

[cormack]

Would the yanks really worship a Muslim little guy who lost his only elite level fight

no they would shred him at any opportunity

[bennie]

Naz retired due to repeated stress fractures he suffered in his hands as opposed to the general view that his poor performance against Manuel Calvo persuaded him to bow out of boxing. He just got sick of the pain after each fight. As a fighter I never really warmed to him but I liked the way he routinely destroyed Mexicans, Puerto Ricans, Argentines and other Hispanic fighters, usually in his favourite round: round two. No other British fighter had ever done that before.

[margaret thatcher]

As far as beating Hissys, unfortunetly we only saw him with 1 elite Mexican, where he was handily defeated and made to look a limited lunger. JMM never got stopped in so many fights vs awesome opposition, doubt Naz was gonna do it, Morales tough as nails and could box or brawl at the top level, they prob both beat Naz too

The Vasquez win is prob a bit underrated though, Vas had loads of title wins all over the world, albeit not vs great opposition, but got battered. Naz had a good few wins like this over good solid proven guys, but guys not really at that elite p4p level or even approaching it

[orbtastic]

It would have been interesting to see him against the MAB that got chinned against Junior Jones.

As for Marquez, he clearly avoided the WBO mandatory for what seemed like 2 years but he was trying to beat all the other beld holders, and did so. JMM was an unknown quantity around that time and lost to, I think, Norwood for his WBA title.

Of course, things being as they were, everyone around 126 or 130 wanted a pay day so any man and his dog was linked to Hamed and you had guys like Angel Vazquez being lined up for a shot, even to the point that FW had him on his books for a while until he looked more than ordinary on a FW card (saw it live, think it was CAT/Nelson UC in Derby, of all places). They wanted him to face everyone from Mayweather to Freitas and everyone inbetween, at any sort of weight 4-5lbs above or below.

I'd have loved to have seen him in with the chinny but rangy banger Luisito Epsinosa but he narrowly lost to Soto, who Hamed then beat. Espinosa had looked sensational banging the crap out of McKinney, who had just come off a wild brawl KO win over Junior Jones (on the UC of Hamed/Kelly).

I think the win that most people overlook in Hamed's career is Bungu. He absolutely iced him and looked pretty untouchable doing so. He also looked pretty good against Badillo, putting in probably the most conventional boxing performance of his entire career. Of course, it's easy to say that who was Badillo and what did Bungu ever do but if you look at prior records/defences of all the guys Hamed faced, it's pretty damned impressive. You would be hard pushed to find a British fighter who has faced/beaten as many belt holders and past champions with as many successful defences piled up.

[margaret thatcher]

Ya, well short of elite but good solid fighters with belt defenses for sure

[Counter-puncher]

Bundu was a decent fighter to totally dominate

[margaret thatcher]

Ya, and totally dominating good fighters like that is as good as you can get below actually beating an elite fighter

[brilo33]

as a london boy growing up as a teen when he was on the scene, yes we all got good rhyme:OhYes: kinda made out you never liked him,personaly loved his fights thought he was exciting skillfull something tottaly different loved his brash talk loved his arrogance, loved the way he fought , i like his talk now https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pBnKwEebhwE

[Onamastus]

Vuyani Bungu's a big win now? A super banty 13 years into his career, coming up in weight, was what, 33? 34?

Was just another easy handpicked opponent. By that time HBO were actually saying on air about their star signing, during Morales/Barerra, 'Come on, Naz, when are you going to fight someone like this?'