I was a massive fan as teen watching Naz in the 90's, he was one of the most exciting fighters on the planet no doubt. His punching power was something to behold but his debut in the States showed us all how vulnerable he was. The first time he faced a great fighter, one of the elite, he was schooled. How do you think he would have done against the other big names of his divisions?
Barrera exposed him. Future opponents would have been emboldened, leading to more losses. After several more L's his act wouldn't play anymore. He'd end up a trial horse like so many others.
he was still young enough to go learn from his mistakes and add some fundamentals to his game. He was an athletic marvel so even a 10% improvement in fundamentals would have ensured he beat most of the elites of his division. But once his aura of invincibility faded, he decided to call it a day. I am a fan too. Amazing fighter. Deserves to be remembered as he provided a lot of entertainment in the ring.
I've just watched the Barrera highlights, Hamed wasn't that bad, it was just that Barrera was superior. The worrying thing for Hamed was that he hit Barrera with some serious shots but he just ate them up and took them in his stride. Barrera looked much bigger and stronger, like a division higher.
Underrated based on his arrogance. One of the hardest hitting Featherweights of all time. 15 world title wins. The Barrera fight gets overblown for how one sided it was. Yes Barrera clearly won but people make out it was a one sided massacre when it was more like a 7-4-1 win for Barrera with point deduction.
He was a very good fighter with Great power and was one hell of a showman. Still don’t think he would have been able to beat Morales or Marquez the other 2 of the triangle of the best Mexican fighters of their time.
underrated based on his extreme unlikeability but dude was one of the hardest pound for pound punchers of his or any era.
Extraordinary athlete and far more skilled than he gets credit for. The Barrera defeat came when he was already on the slide, was riddled with hand injuries, and barely training. People take far too much stock of that fight when making their assessments of Naz. He's an ATG featherweight, an ATG puncher, and one of the best talents Britain has ever produced at world level. He didn't use fundamentals because he knew he was athletic and clever enough to punish his opponents for trying to take advantage of how unorthodox he was. There is method in his madness and he had an exemplary ability to control rhythm and punch between beats.
Naz was a very talented fighter.He had a terrible preperation leading up to the Barrera fight and still made it competittve, no way was he schooled as many suggest.Interesting enough there is a lot of talk regarding Naz on twitter right now an there is hell of a lot of support for him from former fighters.Think they know more than (no fundamentals)Mark Anthony.Who incidently once told me Josh Warrington was better than Naz.Laughable
Underrated cause of his personality. I loved the guy he was a breath of fresh air as he was different than anyone around at the time. His record is much better than ppl think. ATG featherweight and ATG puncher. Loss to Barrera wasn't as bad as it's made out to be. It was closer than many say and Naz wasnt at his best due to poor preparation, loss of hunger and motivation and hand injuries plus he was facing an ATG like Barrera it's not like he lost to some scrub. Miss the Lil Fella.