I only recently got round to watching his interview with the incredibly annoying Gary Newbon. Now I don't know if its just me, but when he talks about his struggles to make weight v Barrera I was pretty shocked. Especially as he said he didn't actually make weight to the day of the weigh-in. Naz said he was something like 2 stone overweight when he took the fight. He said HBO called him up offering silly money but he had little time to prepare. (8 weeks I think) In the documentary 'the little prince the big fight' I don't recall any mentions of weight. That programme was purely focused on his complete lack of effort in training which followed the narrative that Naz had fallen out of love with game. I had absolety no idea he killed himself that badly trying to make weight. Is Naz trying to rewrite history or was this common knowledge??.. (Which makes me a ********) Why now?
Take a look at him,it's obvious he enjoys his food so why would is it such a shock that he says he had problems making the weight.He didnt make any excuses after the fight and took the loss like a man but it was quite obvious during the build up that he had been cutting corners in preparation and that's a no no when your fighting someone like Marco Antonio Barrera.
Not a lie, look at his condition physically that fight, he had a bit of a belly on him, which was unsual
He didn't give a toss by the Barrera fight. He wouldn't have had any issues with the weight had his commitment been there. He should never have split from Ingle.
The weight issue you can only put down to his lack of dedication at that point he was so far up himself he just did what he wanted. johnny v & others may remember when he made that hand gesture to an opponent pretty sure it was Robinson calling him a wanker during the fight.From that point never really a fan of his Barrera was the better man no excuses he had all the preparation time he needed.
I met Naz when I was about 13 in Dublin after he fought Manuel Medina and he was the polar opposite to the guy I seen on the tele.Really well mannered,signed my poster and took pictures with my family was quite surreal as you'd imagine meeting one of your idols.My mam had seen him on tele prior to this and labelled him a twat and didnt want me to go to see him fight,she took it all back though after we met him.
He knew he wasn't going to win. The game was up, fighting former champions and never been stopped's was alright.... but a totally world class opponent bang in his prime was too much. It's just a good job Morales or Marquez didn't get their mitts on him.... Barrera was the easiest matchup for him of the three and he was well beaten.
Anyone who saw the build up documentary little prince big fight should know he didn't train properly, he was living and training in a mansion with nobody but himself in charge, he was surrounding by arse lickers led by his brother. Naz had the potential to be something very very special but he ****ed it all up by getting to big headed, leaving Ingle was the beginning of his downfall. Everything he achieved was down to natural talent if he had of had the dedication and commitment to go along with that he would've been unstoppable. The guy could've been so so much better than he turned out to be.
That's all well and good, but what really defines Nazzy is that he completely quit after he'd been bested. One easy farewell fight so he could go out a winner, but then he took his toys and went home because the other kids weren't letting him have his way. And there was plenty more of that to come had he stayed at it. I REAL champion would have dusted himself off, determined to train harder and add more fundamentals to his game and come back and earned himself a rematch and then taken on other top names. Great fighters do great things, they often reinvent themselves, or they get that steely determination that this won't happen again, they want to show the world that they're better than that. Nazzy was a front-runner, a guy who was on top of the world when he was having it all his way but who reacted poorly when things got real. Look up Assclown in your urban dictionary and you'll see Nazzy's fat mug.
It was for all to see that Naz didn't prepare properly for MAB & was surrounded by yes men. As mentioned before, the documentary before the fight showed how he was cutting corners in training etc - he deserved to lose that fight. But, for all those people who didn't like the way Naz conducted himself the one thing they can't say is that he didn't take the loss like a man - fair play to him. I am one of the few who think that fight would have gone differently had it happened 2/3 years earlier. MAB was a world class fighter in his pomp when they fought, this is not a knock on him but at the point he for Naz.. he was fighting a fighter who had lost interest in the sport, was surrounded by yes men and who also had issues with his hands.
