BoxRec

I'm sure someone will have asked this before, but can anyone tell me what is happening with Prince Naseem, is he planning to fight again any time in the near future.

I've not even heard any rumours for ages........he's well into retirement IMO.

anybody see his debut and early fights on channel 5 the other week (or am i the only man up at 5 in the morning wanking)?

wow what a nifty mover. hadnt seen em in like a decade. big power, great movement, super sharp hands. i watched hamed v barrerra the following day and there was no compariosn. what a klutz! shitty movement, little technique, soft looking body.

PS when i said wanking i didnt mean wanking over naseem. i havent done that in years.

overhand_right wrote:anybody see his debut and early fights on channel 5 the other week (or am i the only man up at 5 in the morning wanking)?

wow what a nifty mover. hadnt seen em in like a decade. big power, great movement, super sharp hands. i watched hamed v barrerra the following day and there was no compariosn. what a klutz! shitty movement, little technique, soft looking body.

PS when i said wanking i didnt mean wanking over naseem. i havent done that in years.

what a revelation those early naz fights r i ordered a load of his early fights a couple of months back and its gr8 stuff, gr8 skills, gr8 power and as cocky as anything, they'll never be another like naz

i'm at the stage where i'm quite happy watching the old stuff hopefully he doesn't comeback and get knocked out by a guy he would have pasted when he was at his peak.

Try telling that to dumb-ass american fight fans, who simply will not believe that by the time Naz got to Barrera, he was well and truly in decline.

overhand_right wrote:anybody see his debut and early fights on channel 5 the other week (or am i the only man up at 5 in the morning wanking)?

wow what a nifty mover. hadnt seen em in like a decade. big power, great movement, super sharp hands. i watched hamed v barrerra the following day and there was no compariosn. what a klutz! shitty movement, little technique, soft looking body.

PS when i said wanking i didnt mean wanking over naseem. i havent done that in years.

I was up, not wanking mind you, It was the first time i`d seen his first few fight`s.....what talent...i really thought Naz was going to be "the one" to stick it to the yanks.

jamesmcdonnell wrote:Try telling that to dumb-ass american fight fans, who simply will not believe that by the time Naz got to Barrera, he was well and truly in decline.

His display aginast Bungu was one of his best ones on during his career. Okay, Bungu didn't have the best preperation and wasn't a feather - but it was still a good performance.

As I have said before, there was always some angle that gave Hamed that slight edge. Either the fighters weren't quite A+ level opponents (Hardy, Baddillo, Sanchez, Alicea, Molina, Laval, Cabera), had bad prep time (Bungu, Robinson), weren't feathers (McCullough) or were over the hill (Johnson, Vasquez).

When he faught guys world class guys, near their primes, with good prep time - he ALWAYS struggled (Ingle, Kelley, Medina and Soto - although he was a poor champion). Then he faught his first Pound four punder level fighter, and got exposed.

I never had Hamed ranked higher the #9 on a world P4P list becuse of the fact that he never faught anyone without some major advantage - their okay fighters on paper, but there was this angle with them all.

So was Hamed well and truly in decline, or was he simply a little over-rated.

Not overrated as such, but he believed his own hype.

If he'd have trained hard, then he could have moved up to the P4P level.

I remember seeing Hamed on TV for the first time in his 5th fight with Des Gargano and saying, *WoW*.
I was really impressed with his natural athletic ability and catlike agility.
If only he would have hired a good trainer to help him with the basics.

I thought Naz’ decline started when he fought Ingle. 8)
So, I won a lot of money when Barrera beat Hamed.

Yers truly,
A dumb-ass American fight fan

Incidentally, on that same card in 92, Andy Holligan won a decision over lightwelter Dwayne Swift who is still good enough (at 175 lbs) to knock 10-0 Jorge Kahwagi down twice before being stopped in the second round last Saturday in Mexico.

He DID have a good trainer, the problem was, at some point, he stopped listening, stopped putting everything into his training, and stopped developing as a fighter.

Ingle perfected and honed his style over many years, I don't think Manny Steward helped matters by 'orthodoxing' his style.

jamesmcdonnell wrote:He DID have a good trainer, the problem was, at some point, he stopped listening, stopped putting everything into his training, and stopped developing as a fighter.

Ingle perfected and honed his style over many years, I don't think Manny Steward helped matters by 'orthodoxing' his style.

Agreed, Steward did not help at all. He also didnt help by calling Hamed the greatest 126lbder of all time. What nonsense. Hamed didnt need boosting up, if anything he needed telling that he would never have beaten guys like Sanchez, Pep, Nelson and Saddler. That would have motivated him. Instead he thought he could walk on water and got a 10/10 hiding from Barrera.

Steward was just a yes man.

What was all that nonsense with him and Suarez doing alternate rounds in the corner?

Hamed was a terrific talent and an awesome puncher, but we must remember that his management did a great job of putting him in with very good fighters who were just on the slide. Tom Johnson, Kevin Kelley etc.

As good as Hamed was, I think that he was made for Barrera. I think Barrera would have beaten any version of Hamed.

He should stay retired.

I think in later years Steward did tart himself around a bit. I mean if he had any bollocks he should have said to hamed.

'It's either me or Suarez, get rid of the fat useless pudendum, or I'm off'

One minute Steward was going on about how fornicating great Hamed was, how great he looked in training, and then after the event it's 'hamed didn't listen to me, he didn't work hard enough'

Steward is the kind of trainer who I think works best with fighters who either have an orthodox style, don't need much adjustment (Lewis), or who are with him their whole career.

Steward himself admitted that being a travelling trainer didn't suit him, and that he preferred the old gym system. The fact is if you have a good trainer the discipline of being part of the gym system seems to work best.

whoa, manny stewrad like all trainers was hyping hamed up before the fight, but in truth he wasnt happy about anything.

he said hamed was looking unimpressive in sparring (watch the little prince doc), hamed refused to listen, wanted to train in the wrong kind of place, suarez was a useless fat pudendum, was dead against all this ridiculous switching cornermen round by round etc (suarez and naz idea, what pricks)... it goes on.

how cananyone say the laughable teachings of brendan ingle make him a good trainer (no defence, lots of running around and bullshitting etc) and manny steward a bad one!??!?!?!

KRONK GYM vs any brendan ingle joke fighters, hahahahahhahahaha.

Steward certainly has far more accomplishments than Ingle, of that there is no doubt, but Ingle was the better trainer for Naz I think. Steward is a very orthodox trainer who specialises in balance and power, and I think he took away a lot of Hamed's naturally unorthodox style. Kevin Kelley commented at the time, when he heard that Naz was going to work with Steward, that he thought that Naz would be easier to hit.

I think Steward would have been best threatening to walk out on Hamed,
maybe it would have forced Hamed to see sense, or not as the case may be.

Manny has trained some of my favourite fighters, Hearns was his masterpiece, but I think he should have stood his ground more over the Hamed fiasco.

I haven't seen the little prince documentary actually, I missed it when it was on. Has anyone here got it on tape.

You know, despite his poor performances in the States, Naz is remarkably popular in America. He's probably the most popular British fighter in America since Jack "Kid" Berg.

I suppose that's because although he often struggled the Kelly and Sanchez fights were absolute thrillers.

That coupled with the ring entrance/charisma makes for a good career in the US.

He could have made even more cash too....

I think Naz is only interested in being numero uno though and against MAB realised he was no longer prepared to go to the depths required to acheive that status.

I doubt Pacquios subsequent battering of Barerra will have helped change Hamed's mind either....

Personally I would like to see a couple of big money domestic showdowns with likes of Brodie and Harrison.

If he ain't got the fire, he may as well retire....

Naz was a real phenomenon in America, they were all hot on him, Jay Larkin said he thought that Naz had the potential to become one of the all time greats, he really did cause a sensation over there, and how many British fighters can claim to have set America on fire?

Answer, fornicate all.

I like that McDonnell.

jamesmcdonnell wrote:If he ain't got the fire, he may as well retire....

Naz was a real phenomenon in America, they were all hot on him, Jay Larkin said he thought that Naz had the potential to become one of the all time greats, he really did cause a sensation over there, and how many British fighters can claim to have set America on fire?

Answer, fornicate all.

Ken Buchanan did very well in America against truly World Class opposition.

Correct me if I'm wrong but for may years he was the only non american to win the new york boxing writers association fighter of the year award.

Muhammad Ali fought on a Buchanan UNDERCARD at the Garden.

You're missing the point, Hamed is the most POPULAR fighter to go to America in a long long time. By contrast Lewis is a nobody. The Americans loved his cocky, brash style, his powerpunching and his (by then) life and death struggles in the ring.

Hamed was the daddy for a while, if only he could have backed it up with dedication and the willingness to listen and improve, who knows how far he could have gone.

I think people take the defeat to Barrera as an indication that Hamed was nothing but hype, but people always forget that NOBODY outside of Barrera's camp expected him to turn into a cute counterpuncher.

jamesmcdonnell wrote:You're missing the point, Hamed is the most POPULAR fighter to go to America in a long long time. By contrast Lewis is a nobody. The Americans loved his cocky, brash style, his powerpunching and his (by then) life and death struggles in the ring.

Hamed was the daddy for a while, if only he could have backed it up with dedication and the willingness to listen and improve, who knows how far he could have gone.

I think people take the defeat to Barrera as an indication that Hamed was nothing but hype, but people always forget that NOBODY outside of Barrera's camp expected him to turn into a cute counterpuncher.

Without trying to sound cocky, I backed Barrera to win at 3/1.

Funny thing is that looking at the scores for the fight, if Hamed could have won 2 more rounds he would have gotten a draw! Whilst Barerra clearly won the fight I never felt it was the absolute humiliation that many seemed too happy to say it was.

Hamed wasn't stopped, still had the respect of Barerra who never went gun-ho for the stoppage because he knew Hamed could spark him given the chance.

This is why I was dissapointed in Hamed's failure to continue with his career, I felt there was still enough to work on to have some hope of reversing that result. I believe Barerra can't fight much better than he did on that night whereas Hamed if he knuckled down quite clearly could.

Barerra was not indestructable, I based my pick for Hamed solely on what Junior Jones did to Barerra and don't tell me Hamed doesn't punch harder than Jones, I figured Naseem would connect at some stage during the 12 rounds. He never did though. Had he applied himself more in terms of workin hard for the opportunity to set up a big shot he could well have beaten Barerra IMO.

Were the scores that close? They shouldn't have been, because Hamed barely laid a glove on Barrera all night, and on the scant occasions when he did

I do agree that Hamed could have performed a lot better with better preparation and a different mental attitude, but it is the mark of the man that he took Barrera too lightly, and thought his power was all he needed.

Hamed at some stage ceased to work hard to devlop his gifts, and ultimately that was his failing as a fighter. He was a great talent who made a hell of a lot of money, but fell short of being an all-time great, I think ultimately because it wasn't as important to him as the fame and adulation.

115-112, 116-111, 115-112.

Actually if Hamed had won 2 more rounds he would have won a split decision.

Or even scored a knockdown in a round Barerra won he could have gotten a majority draw....

Christ, what fornicating fight were they watching, that is ridiculous!!!

Seems like often the scores are just made up so one fighter doesn't get embarassed, I don't remember Hamed doing much except eating shots all night in that fight.

I must say, it was a humiliation, you could see how humiliated Hamed felt during the fight, especially when he was bent over rammed into the turnbuckle and basically treated like the jail-bunk bitch by Barrera.