Who was The more Popular in The U.K - Prince Naseem Hamed Or Chris Eubank?

Thats what made him so good to watch.

 

You might well be right.

 

Here are the year by year annual ratings.

You said he wasn't the WBC, IBF or WBA champ ... but he beat those champs and dumped their belts. You say he wasn't rated as a Ring Champion, when NO ONE was rated as a Ring champion those years.

Go look at the Ring Annual ratings yourself. Which divsion lists a champion in ANY division in ANY of that entire decade?

Where are the "plenty of divisions" where there is a champion listed above 1-10?

Here are ALL the divisions.
https://boxrec.com/wiki/index.php/The_Ring_Magazine's_Annual_Ratings:_1991
https://boxrec.com/wiki/index.php/The_Ring_Magazine's_Annual_Ratings:_1992
https://boxrec.com/wiki/index.php/The_Ring_Magazine's_Annual_Ratings:_1993
https://boxrec.com/wiki/index.php/The_Ring_Magazine's_Annual_Ratings:_1994
https://boxrec.com/wiki/index.php/The_Ring_Magazine's_Annual_Ratings:_1995
https://boxrec.com/wiki/index.php/The_Ring_Magazine's_Annual_Ratings:_1996
https://boxrec.com/wiki/index.php/The_Ring_Magazine's_Annual_Ratings:_1997
https://boxrec.com/wiki/index.php/The_Ring_Magazine's_Annual_Ratings:_1998
https://boxrec.com/wiki/index.php/The_Ring_Magazine's_Annual_Ratings:_1999
https://boxrec.com/wiki/index.php/The_Ring_Magazine's_Annual_Ratings:_2000

 

He wasn't defined by that at all.

Hamed did enough by age 27, BEFORE he fought Barrera -- in beating the WBC, WBA, WBO and IBF featherweight champions, beating the dominant Super Bantam champ, beating the former Bantam champ, beating champs like Medina and Ingle who succeeed him when he dumped the IBF strap, and making 15 successful defenses of the featherweight title - to get elected into Boxing's Hall of Fame the second year he was eligible.

And he should've gotten in on the first ballot. How many featherweight champions made more defenses than Hamed and also beat the other org's champions, as well as the dominant champ in the division below, and beat multiple champs (Medina and Ingle) who succeeded them?

 

Naz collected all the belts but there was no real competition.

Eubank had McCallum, Nunn, Toney, Benn etc to topple to take other belts. Julian Jackson, Iran Barkley and so on. Crazy really. Nobody had comp that stiff in their weight class. Even if you they weren’t around and it was average instead, you pay sanctioning fees on each belt so doesn’t make much sense; often 90 days to defend against a mandatory for a belt etc out the blue.

 

Try this:

https://boxrec.com/wiki/index.php/The_Ring_Magazine's_Annual_Ratings:_1988

You’ll see champions where they recognize a lineal/Ring champ.

 

He’s defined by it because he’s remembered for his one loss and how he reacted to it.

Hey, if he’s your guy he’s your guy.

But if you wanna play, you gotta get in the sandbox. And the first time someone kicked sand in his face he grabbed his ball and ran home.

Most of his ‘defenses’ were WBO trash. Yes he had a few nice wins. I think Tom Johnson and Kelley were really top-tier title fights. But then he found his ceiling and he didn’t want no more.

 

That about sums it up for me.

 

I have never blamed the guys for “leaving early” especially after a beating, Hamed in particular I think might’ve been worried for his future health, Barrera really took him to the sword and you have to make a decision after a fight like that.

He choose to retire rich and healthy and leave on a win out the door. What needs to be recognised is boxers are around the scarred people of the sport all day, A lot of them are there trainers and coaches, tragically some on the way up are there opponents. When you look at your possible future every other day you think hard every other day.

 

He found his ceiling and left like any sane man. He left rich, healthy and intact. I don’t blame him imagine the kinds of thoughts you’d be having with so much to lose after being savaged for the first time.

 

A lot of Eubank's fights were really, REALLY dull and he was unpopular for a large part of his career.

He was the guy people loved to hate. I watched his fights hoping he would lose.

 

He really was the Mick McManus of boxing, was Eubank. On a grander scale. Great family entertainment or the every day bloke down every pub roaring at the other guy to knock Eubanks block off!

Golden times.

 

What the hell am I supposed to be looking at exactly?

I TOLD YOU Ring changed their policy and they didn't name champions during Hamed's reign. You said they did name Ring champions when he was fighting. I posted a decade of ratings, including Hamed's entire reign, showing they named NO champions during Hamed's reign.

So you post a link to ratings before he even turned pro? WTF?

They named Ring champions BEFORE Hamed was champion. They changed their policy in the 90s when Hamed was a champion. They changed it back in the 2000s.

Your arguments against Hamed make as much sense as that last post.

If you want to complain that Hamed was never a RING Champion, NO ONE WAS during the 90s because Ring didn't name them at that time.

(But when the RING changed it's policy back, the first fighter they retroactively named champ from the 90s was ... wait for it ... NASEEM HAMED.)

You want to complain he was never the WBC, WBA or IBF champ, just the WBO champ, but he BEAT the WBC, WBA and IBF champs. He made 15 successful title defenses and he fought 10 champions in his title fights, including the other orgs champs and champs from super bantam to bantam.

Whatever your rationale or personal biases are for not liking him, what Hamed accomplished in the ring clearly shouldn't be ... since the arguments you made against him (wasn't a Ring champion and didn't hold the other titles) ... was easily dismissed.

He was a hall of fame champion.

 

I think he chose to leave because the doors in America all closed after 9/11.

I've never seen a rising superstar fighter, who was only 27, who had beaten all the champs in his division, made 15 title defenses, lose one decision and have all the networks in the US turn away from him.

And they didn't turn away from him until 9/11. HBO was still talking Hamed-Barrera II and whether it should come before Barrera-Morales II and about Hamed's upcoming HBO November fight on 9/8.

After 9/11, it was over for him in the US for the foreseeable future. No November HBO fight. No rematch with Barrera. Even after Hamed's comeback win, which no one in the US picked up, HBO threw Barrera in with Kevin Kelley over Hamed and Naseem wasn't even mentioned.

That makes far more sense than saying he "found his ceiling" and quit. All he had to do was move up, or wait for Barrera to leave (which Barrera did shortly after), which is what many boxers do. But the US networks had turned their backs on him. There were no dates for him. No coverage of his comeback. And fighting in the UK back then wasn't where the money was. It was a big step backward. Germany was a bigger fight country than the UK back then.

He was essentialy blacklisted in the U.S. post 9/11.