:dealYeah i have to echo this. Awesome fighter Naz, one of a kind and the hardest hitting featherweight ever. It's a shame he lost his hunger so quickly.
Hamed Vs. Kelly at MSG, New York was one of the most exciting fights I have ever seen. Hamed was talented, very talented, miss watching him fight.
Amazing fight but its this fight which shows Hameds limitations and how easy a class boxer could get to him...technically he was awful. I enjoyed all the bull**** entrances, the entertainment he brought, but he was always going to get found out at elite level. The ''if he was dedicated he COULD'VE been bla bla bla'',doesnt hold no weight with me, he wasnt so thats the end of that. His power was devastating tho.
Naz was one of our best ever fighters.He beat some very good fighters and was nearly always good to watch.Even people who hated his guts had to admit he was good to watch.He was always prepared to take a shot as well as dish them out and dragged himself off the floor a few times. After a while though the people around him and their arguing caused him to lose interest in the game,that as well as the money he had made.The worst thing he ever did was put his brother Raith in charge of his team.Raith had no idea what he was doing and took Naz in totally the wrong direction.
:deal The whole "he wasn't focussed" malarkey is a load of shite to make Hamed fans sleep easier at night. He didn't have the fundamentals to beat the truly great fighters who knew how to negate his awesome power. Very entertaining boxer and talented but didn't have what it took to beat the ATG's of his era. No shame in that, he was a terrific boxer in his own right.
Dynamite in both hands, was awkward and supremely talented. Throw into the mix his very good chin and you had all the makings for an all time great. Unfortunately he lost his way a long time before barerra. Put simply, he wasn't training hard enough, and almost fell out of love with the sport. Later on, he also became very religious, and he always said he was a muslim first and boxer second. Somewhat unfairly, people remember his 116-112 points loss to MAB as a schooling. Yes barerra won, but I don't think it should be considered a schooling after a fighter wins a third of the rounds. In summary, he had everything in his armour to be an ATG, sadly by the time of his biggest fight, he had become lazy and his heart just wasn't in it.
I find it too hard to seperate Naz the boxer from Naz the person: the former was one of the most natrually gifted boxers of the modern era and the latter a dispicable excuse of a human...
Arguably the hardest puncher in the history of 126. Awkward and precise when he threw, he could be outworked with his seemingly lackidaisical style, and lack of longevity lets him down. Decent competition, only loss over 12 to a true ATG. Good chin as well.
The Bungu fight actually showed off his boxing skills in my opinion. Up until then (and in pretty much every other fight) he was just a flash **** relying on the heavy artillery he had been blessed with. but with Bungu, he fought really slick, worked him with the jab and waited for the right opportunity then destroyed him with that unnaturally heavy right hand. Like many, I hated him at the time but don't half miss him now.
He was seriously good for a while but unfortunately he liked the celebrity lifestyle more than he liked the sportsman lifestyle, so as he went up the levels he was backing off the commitment, so of course came unstuck when he ran into someone special. I think by the end he believed his own hype too much, believed that he could just breeze past people on talent, so he stopped putting in the background work. So on talent and potential he was a star, but in terms of his achievements he will just be remembered as an exciting but short-lived champion who never unified titles/dominated a division in the way he probably could have done. Trouble is, we can talk about what he should have achieved, but the passion and the work ethic are just as important as the raw talent in top level sport. Whichever of the necessary components you are lacking, that is what stops you being regarded as truly great, as the true greats are not lacking in any department.
He was "very good". Unorthodox style, strived against low level opposition but was found wanting when he stepped into the big leagues. There's a lot of fans and followers who are under the illusion that he was somehow past his prime by 2001, but I think if any partial viewer was to go back and study Hamed's entire career, they'd realise he was never a particularly elusive target and would have never beaten the MAB that turned up in '01. A year removed from arguably his career best performance, Hamed was thoroughly outboxed by a better fighter. That's really all there is to it. A very good fighter.