His hands were blown to bits and the hunger wasn't there anymore. Made his money and was surrounded by yes men towards the back end of his career, cutting corners in training. As the Marvelous one once said... It's tough to get out of bed to do roadwork at 5am when you're sleeping in silk pyjamas.
I'm not 100% convinced of that. MAB fought the perfect fight and had the style to do it. Morales's machismo might have gotten him into trouble vs Hamed.
He beat a better fighter in Pacquiao at a later age. Morales was a master boxer when he wanted to be. His feints would have had Naz leaning and overthrowing everywhere.
Nah Morales could go Pac round 12 vs Naz and be fine. My money is on him stopping Prince. Would be a great fight. Too bad it didnt happen.
If it wasn't for boxing politics Hamed would of been the undisputed 126 lber I think, from memory he had the WBO title from Robinson, IBF from Johnson, should of had the WBA from Vasquez who was stripped before the fight and then the WBC from....Soto? As to why no rematch.....just speculation but I think Hamed ran out of motivation for boxing. I still think Barrera would of won another decision over Hamed if they tangled again.
Because he was so horribly dominated stylistically, he knew there was no "re-tooling" that he could've done to make a rematch any less lopsided.
Impossible score because of the point deduction, the last round was an even round because Barrera clearly won it but had a point deducted. So I'm assuming you had it 116-113 with the point deduction.
There was no rematch because he got humiliated by a superior fighter and exposed for the hype job he was.
MAB took his heart from boxing. Hamed took a little time off, got fat, and came back for a gimme 'farewell' bout.
For me the fight was one-sided with Barrera pulling away at the end. Hamed shaded maybe three rounds. None were clear. The whole weight loss thing seems to be overblown. There is footage of Naz at a time he said he'd piled on the pounds and he looks his usual (fighting era) self. Fighter's who are truly weight drained won't last twelve taking so many flush counters. The excuses were damage control for a guy who couldn't fully accept the defeat because it insinuated a painful truth - excellent fighter but not true, ATG quality. 'Prime' Naz always leapt in and left himself in silly positions. Nine times out of ten, Barrera punishes this style.