https://boxrec.com/media/index.php/The_Ring_Magazine's_Annual_Ratings In year end p4p in both 98 and 00.
I was never a fan of his but especially with hindsight he was very good and the top FW for years Won the WBO title Won the WBC title Won the IBF title Beat the fighter who was the WBA Some good wins Looked at the yearly p4p ratings and saw two different years that he was in the top 10
The second he stepped up to face the best he got schooled in a very one sided fight. Then he retired very early at a young age because he knew he had nothing for the elite.
9th p4p in 1998 6th p4p in 2000 Not only that but what an entertainer, one of the best of my lifetime watching boxing. We are still talking about him in 2019 and his last fight was 2002.
He had lost his hunger to train by then. His training camp for Barrera was more of a fat camp. If you watch the documentary of his career you will see he was done by the time of the Barrera fight. He had earned too much money in his head to care any longer.
This content is protected Here is the documentary covering the build up to the Barrea fight for anyone that is interested. Hamed had completely lost the plot by fight night, remember him reciting an Islamic prayer during the introductions with Buffer and getting boo'd by the crowd. (This was around the time of the rise of Al'Qeada)
Whether you loved him or hated him, by the time he got to Barerra he was on the slide. His head wasn't in it anymore, Ingle had gone, his hands were absolutely ****ed and he was putting on stupid amounts of weight.
Yeah and David Haye lost because of his injured little toe against Klitschko! I really hate petty excuses in boxing like this. If he'd lost his hunger to train he wouldn't have made the weight for a start. '' Do me a favour!'' as Frank Warren would say. He just simply wasn't good enough to beat Barrera. There is levels and if he'd have fought Barrera 100 times he would have lost 100 times.
He was 28 years old!!!! That's usually a boxers prime! Petty excuses are pathetic. He realised that night he would never beat the elite fighters like Barrera, Pacqauio, Marquez, Morales. Hence why he chose to retire at a young age.
