Hamed's Retirement was Boxing's Loss.

I know a lot of people took satisfaction from seeing Hamed being comfortably beaten by Barrera. But I think that in many ways Hamed's retirement was detrimental to the sport itself. Hamed was one of the few crossover, mainstream, international stars of the sport. He generated public interest, media headlines, revenue, controversy and excitement. But most significantly of all; Hamed was unique. How many other fighters have Michael Buffer speaking Arabic, fly in on a magic carpet or have P.Diddy alongside them for a ring walk?

I recall that during a frenetic fight against Augie Sanchez, in between rounds, the ring doctor leaned in and asked Hamed "how are you doing?", Hamed replied "I'm doing great, how are you?".

Hamed's ego, energy and zest were great to watch. Even though Sanchez was seriously overmatched, it was one of a plethora of Hamed fights that were brilliantly entertaining, and often iconic (Hamed vs. Kelley).

In my mind, Hamed was a great fighter. He never proved he was a great fighter though. He did, however, prove that he was a very good fighter with a reasonably strong and deep resume, and a series of significant accomplishments within the sport.

 

I know Hamed eventually became well known in the US boxing community, but I don't think he was anything like the mainstream star over there as he was here in the UK, or in the the rest of Europe and Asia. I grew up in that era and I didn't even like, or follow, boxing at the time, but he was the one guy who everyone had heard of.

It would have been nice if he had fought on after Barrera. But there are plenty of credible reasons why he didn't. Most of them I can respect. In a recent interview he made it clear that one of the main reasons was that his hands were ****ed, and he was losing his power because of the constant pain.

A while ago I did this about why I felt he retired:

http://www.eastsideboxing.com/forum/showthread.php?t=127810

 

That Arabic thing started a few fights before Barrera. I think the first time was against Bungu. Or perhaps McCullough :huh

 

Not sure that is true.

 

Well thats sort of what I mean. He was more famous than popular. And those that were a fan, didn't like him any less post-Barrera.