The Better Boxing Career: Naseem Hamed or Amir Khan?

Naz and it's not even close.

 

this may well be true. retiring early unfortunately doesnt give us the answers for definite. Shame he didnt have the guts of Khan to come back.

 

Hamed and it isn't even close.

 

There is an arguement for who had the better career... Amir's is still going and it could be argued that he has been in with a higher amount of high level opponents.

However in terms of ability and who the better fighter was they are light years apart Hamed was miles more talented than Amir, had a very good chin also. Hameds career was so underwhelming (in terms of who he actually beat) and longevity. If he had screwed the nut and applied himself 100% and not had the fall out with Ingle he would have had a special career. Hamed underachieved in the sport Amir has overachieved.

 

naz, by a long shot

 

The Barrera fight wasn't as wide as people think, watch it back. MAB won for sure but Naz won 4 or 5 rounds.

 

No the Barrera fight wasn't a slaughter as people like to make out

However Naz didn't fight as good opposition as Khan.

 

Hamed - better opposition and wins.

 

Let's go for simple facts.

Naseem Hamed - WBO World Featherweight Champion with 15 successful defences (vacated), IBF World Featherweight Champion with two successful defenses (vacated), WBC World Featherweight Champion (vacated) Lineal World Featherweight Champion with 5 successful defences (defeated), IBO World Featherweight Champion (vacated).

Amir Kahn - WBA (Super) World-Light Welterweight Champion with five successful defences (defeated), IBF World Light-Welterweight Champion (defeated).

Doesn't seem much of a contest.

 

Hamed by far the better of the two imo

Hamed retired due to hand trouble whereas Khan will eventually be retired due to chin trouble.

 

Naz , HOF fighter. Khan decent at championship level but nowhere near Naz.

 

Perhaps in rounds scored but there were times Barrera was making Naz look like a caveman swinging wildly into the wind.

Naz was in poor form, had zero focus. Watch the documentary about him made in the build up to the fight, most important thing to him was his hair cut . Completely lost his way by then

 

Hamed and I'm not a fan.

 

This content is protected

Interesting vid for thos interested giving Hamed's perspective of the Barrea fight. Starts with an interview from Emmanuel Steward.

 

Interesting interviews. For me tho...there was nothing on his record that pointed to him dealing with barrerra. Think the first real fight naz had was medina way back in the ingle days...who was a good fighter without being a top level fighter. He caught naseem with shots most of the night sure one judge had it a point in it when naz stopped him in the 11th i think it was...again naseem talked it away by saying he had a cold.

But its the same thing again for me...first real test and theres some kind of excuse. A lot of people put it down to a lack of focus etc later in his career with barrerra etc...but i say it was more down to the level of opponent getting higher. Lets get it right steward was one of if not the best in the business. Said himself that he didnt try to change naz too much. Dont get me wrong i rated naz highly great fighter...but a lot of people fell in love with the flashy style. I still think the very top guys of the division although not as pleasing to the eye would have beaten him. Although tbf to him he always had a chance with the power. But realistically they we,re too good fundamentally too fall victim to it as barrera showed. He pretty much took everything away from naseem that night to the point naz didnt really know what to do. If no one had caused naz problems up till barrera you could make a stronger case for naz totally losing focus but there were guys that gave him problems before he got to barrera.

A lot of naz,s record outside of the usual no hopers to start with was filled with guys with decent records but hadnt really fought much outside their native country and didnt really go on to achieve anything. Pretty much frank wa rren favourable matchmaking He took care of a good few guys that we,re half decent contenders like mculloch etc. But they we,rent really on the level of barrerra morales etc. Kelley was on the slide also caused him problems. Didnt have trouble hitting him etc. A few other guys that we,re half decent started causing him problems as well. People say down to losing focus but what is that based off him looking impressive beating up average fighters at best.

He was a very talented skilled fighter. Ended up with a pretty decent career was definetely a top contender...but think regardless of focus or if he stayed with ingle he would have fell short at the very top level of tbf to him a very good division at the time. Another case of people going for flashy over substance. Miss him tho cause he was very very entertaining to watch. And cant say he wasnt a great fighter. One of them we,ll never really know but personally thats my opinion on it. Because he was great to watch a lot of people ended up slightly overrating him.