BoxRec

Been only in my teens when Naseem Hamed was at his peek around 1997 (i would have been 15 & my boxing knowledge not very good), were his opponents hand picked or did he face the best in the division, he fought Kevin Kelley & Tom Johnson (big names) and lost to MAB but was he the man and did he achieve the level of greatness he always said he would ???

He wasn't great, but a damn good fighter.

People now say he got beaten by the first top fighter he fought. I agree, but he shouldn't be ashamed of his performance that night. If he had the heart, he may have reversed the decision a few months later. But he's done his legacy a great disservice by leaving the sport IMO.

in british terms he is certainly one of the greatest....

in my opinion he fought everyone there was to fight..... and dominated the division for 5 years..... thats impressive... he held or should have held all the belts in the feather weight division too.... you dont do that by hand picking oppnents

he was never gonna live up to his own hype... he reckoned he was gonna win every title up to super middle......

knockout wrote:in british terms he is certainly one of the greatest....

in my opinion he fought everyone there was to fight..... and dominated the division for 5 years..... thats impressive... he held or should have held all the belts in the feather weight division too.... you dont do that by hand picking oppnents

he was never gonna live up to his own hype... he reckoned he was gonna win every title up to super middle......

Marquez?

Foggy wrote:Been only in my teens when Naseem Hamed was at his peek around 1997 (i would have been 15 & my boxing knowledge not very good), were his opponents hand picked or did he face the best in the division, he fought Kevin Kelley & Tom Johnson (big names) and lost to MAB but was he the man and did he achieve the level of greatness he always said he would ???

Naz was good he fought foe a European title at 10 or 11 fights, All fighters have an amount off hand picked opponents, to be fair to Hamed he was destructive with both hands, should have acheived more IMO

lirva33 wrote:

knockout wrote:in british terms he is certainly one of the greatest....

in my opinion he fought everyone there was to fight..... and dominated the division for 5 years..... thats impressive... he held or should have held all the belts in the feather weight division too.... you dont do that by hand picking oppnents

he was never gonna live up to his own hype... he reckoned he was gonna win every title up to super middle......

Marquez?

when do you reckon he should have fought him?

knockout wrote:

lirva33 wrote:

knockout wrote:in british terms he is certainly one of the greatest....

in my opinion he fought everyone there was to fight..... and dominated the division for 5 years..... thats impressive... he held or should have held all the belts in the feather weight division too.... you dont do that by hand picking oppnents

he was never gonna live up to his own hype... he reckoned he was gonna win every title up to super middle......

Marquez?

when do you reckon he should have fought him?

marquez beat some guy...sanchez or something, to become the #1 contender for naz title sometime around 97/98 . WBO. Naz didn't do the fight any favors at all and IMO ducked Marquez for all of 2 years. Marquez then went on to fight Norwood and got beat, but Naz certainly didn't try to make the fight happen.

At his peak in 1997 Naz could have beaten any version of Barrera or Morales.

But the 130 pound Floyd Mayweather Jr was another level.

Kilburn wrote:At his peak in 1997 Naz could have beaten any version of Barrera or Morales.

But the 130 pound Floyd Mayweather Jr was another level.

I remember Mayweather calling Naz out a few times. Would have been an exciting fight... while it lasted.

lirva33 wrote:

knockout wrote:

lirva33 wrote: Marquez?

when do you reckon he should have fought him?

marquez beat some guy...sanchez or something, to become the #1 contender for naz title sometime around 97/98 . WBO. Naz didn't do the fight any favors at all and IMO ducked Marquez for all of 2 years. Marquez then went on to fight Norwood and got beat, but Naz certainly didn't try to make the fight happen.

but Naz was fighting WBA and WBC champs instead.... hardly taking an "easy" route......

Kilburn wrote:At his peak in 1997 Naz could have beaten any version of Barrera or Morales.

But the 130 pound Floyd Mayweather Jr was another level.

i agree.... but whilst Naz was a smallish feather (had he trained right) Floyd was a damn huge super feather.....

knockout wrote:

Kilburn wrote:At his peak in 1997 Naz could have beaten any version of Barrera or Morales.

But the 130 pound Floyd Mayweather Jr was another level.

i agree.... but whilst Naz was a smallish feather (had he trained right) Floyd was a damn huge super feather.....

Naz never done any road work at all by all accounts, but always looked fit and could do 12 rounds easily, i doubt he will ever make a come back which is a shame as he was exciting to watch, i doubt there will be another like him.

lirva33 wrote:I remember Mayweather calling Naz out a few times. Would have been an exciting fight... while it lasted.

I think there was a tendency for a while for us Brits to view the hugely unorthodox style of Naz (coupled with the power) as something super-human that no other fighter could match. But Mayweather lets face it was legendary at super-feather, so fast and powerful, no style couldn't be dealt with. Imagine the scalps he'd be taking now were he still in his old division.

Naz's career was a major downer for me he never achieved a fraction of what he could have.

He had the ability to be the greatest without a doubt.

HH

i think Naz's legacy was adversely affected (surprise surprise) by SN taking him the WBO route....

he was still only a super bantam when he fought Robinson... he could have campaigned at 122 for much longer, won titles there and then moved up to feather..... a two weight undisputed champ was easily achievable......

In a word.....no

come 2007 i cannot see him having any problem getting into the IHOF.......... well actually he might struggle to get his fat ass through the door :-)

Hamed is a certain hall of famer, and is a great fighter in british standerds. On the world map he was involved in some great matches against Kelly, Medina, Sanchez.
But also in some bad ones Soto, McCullough.

The one thing missing from his CV is a win over a contempary Great, such as Berrara or Morales. all in all i think he should be remembered as a very good boxer who could have been even better than he appeared.

Personally, if McGuigan gets in so does Hamed.

He was the consensus king for 3-4 years.

Johnson, Kelley, Bungu, McCullough, Ingle, Medina is a decent body of work.

But essentially he underachieved, however he did also avoid JMM and to a lesser extend Istvan Kovacs, a tricky as hell European.

I'd have liked to have seen his comeback after Calvo continue with bouts versus Brodie and Tapia before a return with MAB. But alas, roadwork and dieting to make 126lbs when you've £30 million in the bank must be hard to summon.

I press snooze button on the alarm now, let alone with the prospect of 5-8 miles at 4.30am.

He's only human.

But a peak Hamed would have humiliated Harrison in much the same way he did Robinson.

And remember HAMED tamed Medina six years before Medina was still beating Harrison, consensus #4-6 in today's featherweight division.

Personally, if McGuigan gets in so does Hamed.

He was the consensus king for 3-4 years.

Johnson, Kelley, Bungu, McCullough, Ingle, Medina is a decent body of work.

But essentially he underachieved, however he did also avoid JMM and to a lesser extend Istvan Kovacs, a tricky as hell European.

I'd have liked to have seen his comeback after Calvo continue with bouts versus Brodie and Tapia before a return with MAB. But alas, roadwork and dieting to make 126lbs when you've £30 million in the bank must be hard to summon.

I press snooze button on the alarm now, let alone with the prospect of 5-8 miles at 4.30am.

He's only human.

But a peak Hamed would have humiliated Harrison in much the same way he did Robinson.

And remember HAMED tamed Medina six years before Medina was still beating Harrison, consensus #4-6 in today's featherweight division.

DavidPayne wrote:And remember HAMED tamed Medina six years before Medina was still beating Harrison, consensus #4-6 in today's featherweight division.

Yep and he clearly wasn't 100% for that fight either.

No.

Interesting to start talking about Naz in the past tense at last, it is a shame too. Having Lennox and Naz at the top really was special, many a great night had watching those two.

With regards to the thread title, I guess most will look back on Naz as someone who ultimately under-acheived. He did acheive a lot but because of the manner of many of his victories where he looked most un-featherweight-like and so brutally convincing he looked like he might acheive so much more.

he was a great BRITISH fighter, but all time great at featherweight...nah.