Who was The more Popular in The U.K - Prince Naseem Hamed Or Chris Eubank?

I didn't say all Eubank's fights were dull. I said a lot them were and I didn't think either of the Collins fights were particularly good.

His fights with Dan Sherry and Gary Stretch were pretty dull if I remember rightly and that was before he fought Watson.

 

The Calzaghe fight was terrific. Wharton pushed him a little more than Collins did, he just held back against Collins when Steve was hurt in the last three rounds; dancing and posturing instead.

 

That was largely down to Sherry. Never seen a fighter run around the ring like that when challenging for a world title.

 

You could be right, I wouldn’t know.

 

Well all those guys he lost to somehow didn’t all quit.

Great champions take defeat and come back more motivated to get back to the top and prove themselves all over. They see it as a challenge. Ali didn’t quit after Frazier beat him in the FOTC and he’s The Greatest because of it.

I don’t hate the guy for quitting but I do think he told us he’s a frontrunner type who wanted to be treated as royalty when he was on top but didn’t have the gumption to get back on the horse the first time he got thrown. He was exposed in that fight and by his disappearing act after.

 

This is such a crock.

https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Naseem_Hamed_vs._Manuel_Calvo

Facts:

Hamed had a rematch clause with Barrera and chose not to exercise it.

Hamed was offered a fight on HBO on Sept. 8, 2001, and turned it down.

Hamed himself decided to sever ties with HBO because they weren’t going to pay a king’s ransom for a fight between him and Manuel Calvo, an unknown Euro-level fighter. They said choose another opponent as they had right of approval for what kind of fight they were buying (by contract that Hamed signed) and weren’t going to buy a turkey no one wanted to see … and Hamed wouldn’t relent on opponent so opted out of the contract.

NONE of that has to do with 9/11. He got offered an HBO date BEFORE 9/11 and turned it down. He had a contract guaranteeing him a rematch with Barrera and opted not to enact the rematch clause.

ALL of that is on him.

I think it’s absolutely sick that you would try to make his choices be a reflection of some kind of anti-Islam sentiment that no one has ever expressed and that you cannot provide a shred of evidence for his career choices — basically calling HBO and others unknown a bunch of haters of Islam just because your guy’s career tanked.

And finally, he was NOT AMERICAN. He could have kept fighting in the UK if he didn’t want to fight for HBO (again, he severed the contract, not them) and resumed his career but his heart wasn’t in it. He had an ugly fight against Calvo, a nobody, and decided to quit.

That’s not because America hated Muslims. It’s because he didn’t have the fire in his belly to get in the gym and get better and prove the one loss was a fluke, or that he could recover from it and improve. Instead, he ran from a Barrera rematch, turned down a September fight on HBO and wouldn’t relent on wanting to fight a Spanish pastry for big money that HBO wasn’t going to pay him unless he fought a real opponent.

Those are the facts. Not the fantasy you made up.

 

I wouldn’t use the word exposed, he was at the highest level and he lost that’s it but not in a shameful way at all, he belonged in there and what we saw shows us he was a top tier fighter. He wasn’t a hype job we just saw that he couldn’t beat Barrera and he left. That’s all we know, as a fact. we don’t know anything more everything is an assumption. Boxing is a business don’t forget that, he made the right move for himself.

 

Fact, does September 8, 2001 come before the attacks on September 11, 2001? I told you, HBO was still Gung Ho about Hamed on Sept. 8, the night Barrera defended. They weren't interested in televising his fights after 9/11.

What you posted says the same thing.

And no network picked up his return with Calvo in the US. No one. HBO didn't need to have Hamed under contract to show his fights. Showtime was carrying fights then. They televised Hamed fights before he went to HBO. They didn't show his comeback. ESPN was televising fights. Fox Sports was televising fights then. NBC was televising fights then. Nobody picked it up.

As I also pointed out, fighting the UK in 2001 wasn't exactly like it is now. Germany had a bigger boxing scene back then. When you were a star in the US, being relegated to fighting in the UK wasn't exactly a good career move.

And there was NO reason why he needed to fight there. He was a big star. But US promoters wouldn't have him and US TV wouldn't show his fights after 9/11.

And ask a Muslim if Americans hated Muslims in 2001 and 2002 and get back to me. (I seem to remember they did. It was a bit of a national problem.)

Not exactly the best time to fly in on magical carpets and taunt American boxing fans.

 

Yes but the problem is he didn’t want to do business with HBO. They wanted to do business with him — they’d have surely taken a rematch with Barrera, a Sept. 8 fight against an approved opponent or his fight with Calvo if he’d chosen a decent opponent they would agree upon.

He’s the one who didn’t want to do business.

It was a crap fight, which is why none of the others wanted to pick it up. If he had fought someone decent, HBO would have taken it.

Almost his entire career had been fought in the UK. So he certainly could have continued there if he didn’t want to work with HBO to find sellable opponents.

Again, all his choices.

 

HBO could've offered Hamed a fight with Barrera after his comeback fight with Calvo ... but HBO made Barrera-Kevin Kelley.

Kelley didn't have a contract with HBO. Hamed didn't need one to fight Barrera in a return, either.

But, after 9/11, they didn't want him. No US network did. They just didn't. The mood of the people wouldn't put up with it.

He didn't "discover his ceiling" as you said, and quit. He got banished from the big time fights in the US. And that's where the Big Time fights were in the early 2000s. They weren't in the UK.

It is what it is. Or, I should say, it was what it was ... not a good time time to be a cocky, foreign Muslim boxer taunting U.S. fans.

 

That’s all in your mind.

He had a contract for a Barrera rematch and decided not to enforce it. That’s on him, not HBO.

He had a contract with HBO that gave them right of refusal on opponents. He chose (after turning down a September date with HBO altogether) to fight a can they nor anyone else would pay to televise. He severed the contract with HBO rather than choose a decent opponent.

And HBO dealt with fighter they had contracts with. They aren’t obligated to arrange fights for a guy who left their network and who nullified their contract.

His choices.

You just don’t want to put them on him and would rather blame ‘anti-Muslim sentiment’ of which there is zero evidence.

I’m spitting facts that were reported at the time. You’re spewing projection and conjecture to bend the truth to fit a narrative that makes his own choices not his fault.

Nothing more really to say here. Thanks for the discussion.

 

It's not in my mind. It's what happened.

And Calvo wasn't a "can" when compared to who Barrera actually fought on Sept. 8. Calvo was the European Featherweight Champion. He'd just beaten Steve Robinson. Sanchez wasn't even a featherweight. He didn't even win his last fight. How do you pass up a Hamed-Calvo, Barrera-Sanchez doubleheader by saying no to Calvo? It's not like HBO thought either Barrera or Hamed were going to lose those fights.

Go ahead and believe Hamed "saw his ceiling and quit boxing."

But the truth is after 9/11, Hamed was done in the US. And it didn't have anything to do with anything other than the mood of the country and boxing fans in the US wouldn't have put up with Hamed, and ALL the NETWORKS knew it and apparently agreed, because NOBODY picked him up after 9/11 in the US.

And, other any other circumstance, another network would've swooped in the moment Hamed and HBO had a fallout.

But none did.

 

Provide anything to back up your narrative, please. Show me any evidence whatsoever that 9/11 had anything to do with anything.

He could have kept fighting in the UK if he didn’t want to fight for HBO.

We’re going around in circles. Sorry your guy lost and quit.

 

I think Naz being boo’d heavily in his final fight destroyed his soul.

Barrera smashing his head into the turnbuckle (bullying the bully) damaged his soul. Being boo’d by the fans against Calvo destroyed it.