Would Manny Pacquiao at featherweight have beaten Prince Nasim Hamed?

When you say decent you mean ATG fight? Your talking point is one of the worst ones in boxing. Hamed beat many good champions in his career. The idea he didn't fight anyone good until Barrera is flat out dishonest.

 

Pacquiao by savage KO

 

Manny destroys Hamed. Naseem wasn't close to Pacquiao’s level.

 

Hamed didn't beat one A-grade fighter. I loved watching Naz; he had some of the best ring entrances ever. But he was elevated miles above his station because of how many PPVs he sold and the fact that he could punch. The sport is dying for someone like him now. I'm not saying Soto and McCullough weren't good, of course they were, but they were B-rate. Vazquez was a legendary name, but he was not a featherweight, and he was also on the slide.

Actual A-grade challenges and fighters? Hamed's team actively avoided them like the plague. He and his team didn't mention the Mexican trio of Marquez, Morales and Barrera for years, and I don't blame them. They picked Barrera off as the smallest and weakest of the lot, and he got embarrassed by Barrera essentially teaching him the basics, he didn't get out of 2nd gear that night.

It was the sort of spar you see in the gym where a cocky, mouthy novice turns up and the coach gets in the ring and shows him how much he doesn't know about the sport. The fact that Hamed scurried away after it and basically retired shows he didn't have that dog in him like Pacquiao did; he would've eviscerated Hamed, and it would've been a very nasty KO.

 

It would have been an exciting two way war for sure but the outcome will only favor Pac by stoppage. If Kevin Kelley managed to knockdown Hamed three times imagine if that was Pacquiao.

 

I’m a naz fan but this is a nightmare match for him, pacs work rate would not give naz the chance to set himself, he got wild and open when the pressure was put on him, this is more a compliment to pac than an insult to naz, it’s as bad a stylistic mismatch as naz could get. PAC ko mid rounds

 

Pac runs him over.

 

I'm a Hamed fan and really rate him at his peak before he left Ingle and his hands became an issue but Pac is a level above Hamed even the pre-peak Pac at Featherweight runs through him. Hamed would make it exciting with his power but he never faced anyone like Pac. When Pac leaps in with the straight left he covers so much ground so quickly, that's what surprised JMM in the first fight and I don't think Hamed would have an answer for it with his hands down style and Pac fires fast combinations not just single shots which would be harder for Hamed to evade.

 

I do respect Hamed's abilities and career, no matter what I've said about him being a clown or anything else. He was a tough, unbelievably explosive athlete who did put away some good names. Even his getting smashed up by Barrera was not quite as lopsided as I think it is remembered. I mean, yes, he got some schooling by an even tougher more talented p4p boxer with much more orthodox skill set, but it wasn't quite as bad as remembered-IMO. He has a chance to lay out anyone his size that is considerable. Hamed is not just a walking puncher's chance. Pac's also has had his brains rattled pretty good at multiple weights. Yes, very good chin but his darting style is risky as hell and you see it undo him a few times, even with his chin and his oversized skull.

So, what I'm trying to say is, Pac beats the crap out of him 99/100. If I didn't make that clear.

 

You originally said Hamed never fought anyone 'decent' until Barrera. Now you have moved the goal posts to 'A grade'. Dismissing a fighter for losing a decision to an ATG is laughable. Using that logic many great fighters would be classed as hype jobs. All up he beat 9 world champions, so to say he lost to the first decent fighter he faced is hating.

 

Pacquiao punches harder than Hamed. People forget just how hard Pacquiao was hitting at 126. Barrera was actually unbothered by Hamed's power or strength. And remember that Barrera was physically weaker than Pacquiao by considerable margin.

 

I'm not totally dismissing him, I'm just saying he was overrated, which he was. I said I used to love watching him; they were my earliest boxing memories, but Pacquiao was on a different level. His team avoided Marquez, Morales and Mayweather; they would rather line up B-rate fighters, mostly super bantamweights. If he had fought the best possible opposition, he'd have about six losses on his record.

Okay, yes, sorry, I was being hyperbolic, I shouldn't have said decent, but what I mean is, his career-defining fight was the one he got embarrassed in. I scored the fight 11 rounds to 1. Most of the champions he beat weren't natural featherweights though, I think it's not a fair assessment to say he beat nine world champions. A good fighter, but not a great one, and majorly overrated, Pacquiao would've beat him in the same manner he beat Hatton.

 

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Remember, this was a prime Naseem. Full of confidence, loose and dancing. This wasn’t a Barrera that had 3 weeks to train against Pacquiao. Barrera got ambushed hindsight being 20/20. Everyone here can be arm chair warriors 30 years after the fact including myself.

Even playing field. If Hamed was last in the ring entrance, I would seriously have to favor Prince. Movement and awkwardness.

 

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