This content is protected Fan film by me. People seem to put a lot of emphasis on the Barrera fight but at the end of the day the guy had 37 fights. He was in some great wars with Kelley, Medina and Sanchez. He also had some pretty impressive wins against Tom Johnston and Vuyani Bungu. He didn't beat anyone in the P4P top 10 at the time of the fight but I'd guess Johnston had to be somewhere in the 11-15 range and Bungu was probably somewhere 15-20. Nowadays people also forget how much of a favourite he was over Barrera, getting picked by 28 out of 30 fight writers. Where would you put him in terms of the greatest featherweight boxers? Also how do you think he would match up with Marquez, Morales or Pacquiao?
He knew he wasn't prepared. I would imagine as an elite professional boxer you are extremely self-aware of your condition to fight and it's well-documented that Hamed was not taking camp seriously for the Barrera fight, whereas Barrera himself was like a man possessed. It probably dawned on Hamed in that moment, seeing Barrera in the ring, that he knew he was not ready... "It was at this moment Naseem knew.... He f**ked up".
I remember when Naz was chasing and calling out for this fight, deep down I always thought no you don't need this, this guy will fcuk you up and I believe he knew it within himself anyway, but bravado comes before the duck so credit to him for taking it... Shame he swerved the rematch though.
Very good fighter naz but looking back its hard not to put him down as a bit of a bully. When he found an opponent he couldn,t humiliate...he packed up and ran off. Cant take away that he was a great fighter tho. Great too watch. Think the medina fight revealed he was on a hiding against a great fighter tho. Medina hit him a lot....was quite a competetive fight if i remember rightly. We got excuses for that fight just like after the barrera fight. He probably did have some valid excuses against barrera....dont think it would have changed the result regardless. No shame losing to barrera tho is there.
Hamed said he had a heavy cold after the Medina fight and he was doing his best to fight through it but I'm a bit sceptical of that. One thing about the Medina fight is that Hamed wasn't badly hurt but he did seemed to get rocked in parts. His chin looked vulnerable against a guy who was anything but a puncher. Personally though I think that fight was a slight off night, he was in love with his power too much in that fight, once he got the humbling from the Medina he went on his best run of form until he got complacent again.
Probably true mate. I think he did have a heavy cold tbf...but he couldnt really handle getting hit either. He never really could. He could dish it out but if someone was competetive....his mind went a bit. Began wrestling with opponents/showing serious signs of frustration as the level of opponent went up. if he couldnt humiliate or handle them with ease. Most of the good fighters he fought we,re on the downward spiral....guys with 50 tough fights etc....whereas the prime guys he fought we,re usually trash. Nothing really showed he,d have beat barrera in hindsight. Tbf tho...medina was decent anyway. He was a bit of a veteran but a good veteran...that would have been a tricky night for most at naz,s stage of his career. Post a bit negative because naz was a great fighter....just wasnt quite on the level of barrera. Although tbf i think they we,re a bit wary of him at one point. Hence why barrera kind of changed his style for that fight....which kind of does show he respected him enough to do it.
The psychology is a little deeper than that. Perhaps he didn’t take camp seriously to give himself an out ... if he devotes himself in camp and loses, there’s no excuse. This way, he had one. Regardless, it’s not like the fight wasn’t scheduled far enough ahead for him to train. If he chose not to, that’s a weakness in and of itself that got exposed. Any way you cut it, he was shown to not have it at the top level. If he did, he would have gotten back in shape and gotten a rematch to show he was the better man. Instead, he knew the score and noped the frack out and retired.
Naz was due to box Barrerra years before. He was sat ringside in Florida when Junior Jones knocked him out. Jones then beat him again in the rematch. At that time Naz would have destroyed Barrerra.