Better P4P Fighter - Naz or Froch?

Pound for pound if they were both say 147lbs who would win? Naz with speed and reflexes against Froch with his grit, engine and power? Probably Froch in all fairness, he definitely has the better cv and it’s not even close.

Froch beat multiple world level operators back to back for years. He has he best looking missus too so gets extra credit for that.

 

Hamed was more skilled but he was mentally fragile on top bully.

Toward the end he went off the rails, surrounded by yes men, stopped listening to good advice, Emmanuel Steward was mega pissed off at him in the build up to the barerra fight.

Unfortunately the barerra fight is the one he's remembered for and the one always bought up, but hamed did have some impressive wins besides that and was a joy to watch.

Froch was limited in the sense that he had quite slow reflexes but outside of that he wasnt unskilled, he had a good jab, put his shots together well, good ring coverage etc.

Also when froch lost to ward he went on to record some fantastic wins after it so the ward fight is not the lasting memory of him like Barerra is of hamed.

Froch had a much better career but hamed was the more gifted fighter.

 

Froch was also the bookies favorite to finish last in the super 6, just goes to show just how much he achieved from that moment up until retirement.

 

I’m sure I recall someone from this thread accusing Froch of fixing fights, so it’s no surprise he wouldn’t be considered world class.

 

Froch had the better career for me as Naz tasted defeat and certainly did not chase redemption when young enough to do so. Was always waiting to see what happened when the highly skilled Naz was evenly matched and we got our answer in the Barrera fight.

Froch made of real stuff I admire giving his all in every fight with some great wins in 50/50 fights and as an underdog fighting away from home many times. Ward had his number but every boxer has their nemesis with Froch more likely to meet his as he ducked nobody home or away.

Froch was losing the first fight to Groves when the shyte stoppage happened. Instead of filling his pants like Naz when 2nd best, he filled Wembley with 80,000 people and delivered a cracking knockout to silence the doubters.

Froch for me had the better career, better wins and for me above the flashy Naz in P4P.

 

B

In my humble opinion both were 100% world class, they have every attribute you need to be classed as world class imo

 

Froch, without doubt. Better resume and fought all comers. End of.

 

Froch clearly the better career for me. Naz a ko artist but when tested in a fight not just about his boxing skills, his mentality when not on top he folded against MAB, the bully got bullied.

Froch so many great wins, lots of fights already mentioned the Bute fight wasn't 50/50 at the time Bute was favourite, you could get 6/4 Froch to win. He did a number on Bute who was never the same after. He was 30-0 going into the Froch fight, ended his career 32-5, he got exposed by Froch and never recovered.

 

I actually don’t think there’s been a British fighter in modern history who created as much excitement and buzz, then backed it up on the road to becoming a world champion and unified champion, as Naz did.

Not sure exactly when the decline started, whether it was post-Robinson, post-Johnson or post-Kelley, but up until that point nobody did it like Hamed. Not Calzaghe, not Lewis, not Hatton, and most definitely not Froch.

He’s like Tyson in that sense, shone ridiculously bright and faded just as quickly, whereas most of the others (bar Hatton) ended their careers on top, either taking out legends or the heir apparent.

And ironically, Froch would probably rate Naz above himself, but he’d still find a way to rate himself above everyone else. Naz was literally one of, if not the main reason, he got back into boxing in the first place.

 

Would love to actually know the extent of naz,s lack of training from a certain point.

Looks to me like when the competition started hotting up he started struggling in a lot of them fights. How much of that was down to lack of training or down to just the competition becoming better. Looking over his cv....its a good cv. Kelley, medina, johnson we,re no mugs. But we,ve been dazzled with the skill more than naz being the best boxer coming from these shores imo.

Kelley had his measure. Naz,s power got him out of trouble that night. But his movement etc wasnt working great up to that point. An argument could be made it was during a turbulant time with him and ingle but pretty sure medina caught him most of the night as well. As did a lot of them when he went up a level.

Regardless of how skilled you are....your probably not beating guys like barrera and morales if your skipping training sessions and messing about.

That being said naz was a talent and a half. Great fighter. Just a pity he wasnt as good a person as he was a fighter back then. I think hes a better fella nowadays. When the lights went off i think he realised a bit that its all temporary. Hes the best thing in the world today but tomorrow theres someone else.

Its probably been good for him.

 

Are we talking ability or resume? They would be a different set of circumstances.

If we're talking P4P in the purest sense, and comparing mythical 147lbs version of both fighters, Hamed was obviously a superior talent. Froch is underrated as a boxer, where people mistake being "awkward" for "ineffective". His jab could cause Naz problems, but there's a big speed difference. As much as Naz liked hitting and hurting people, he was also capable of neutralising a fight in classic Ingle style. Stylewise, Froch had trouble with movement, and it was speed rather than strength and pressure that was Hamed's kryptonite. You needed pretty quick hands to take advantage of his defensive lapses, and it was generally better to let him come to you rather than chase him round the ring.

In terms of resume, if you cancel out clear losses to ATGs (Ward and Barrera), you're left with:

Froch:
Kessler 50/50
Groves x 2
Pascal
Taylor
Dirrell
Bute
Abraham
Johnson


Hamed:
Bungu
Kelley
Johnson
Vazquez
Medina
Mccullough
Robinson
Soto

For all the talk of Froch's opposition being a free for all and Hamed being carefully matched, there isn't a huge gap between them. I'd give Froch the edge based on timing; he tended to fight people when they were hot, whereas most people on Hamed's ledger were slightly past their best (while still being relevant).

 

I tend to subscribe to the view that Hamed never reached his potential. On paper Bungu was just about his best win, but that was way after his training went to pot and the conventional wisdom is that he had slipped. The Badillo fight is probably his best performance; obviously not his most significant win, but that was a night he looked virtually unbeatable. However, it was against Jose Badillo and not a great fighter, so we can't know for sure what his level actually was at that point against Barrera, Morales, etc.

 

I might be biased but I’d actually rate Paul Ingle at least equal to Groves and Bute, and it’s a shame his career got cut short.

Plus Naz progressed faster than Froch and looked better doing it. He made Belcastro look like an amateur, winning the European title in his 12th fight. I remember watching Froch struggle with Magee at a level below while retaining the British and Commonwealth titles, after stinking the joint out against Barney and before that Adamu around his 12th fight.

Where Froch caught up was once he won the title against Pascal, and my favourite of his, that comeback win against Taylor. Say what you want about the Super-Six but it was actually the making of him as a fighter due to the competition levels being so high, without that he’d have likely stagnated defending against randoms at the Nottingham Arena, especially if Hennessy was still promoting him.

 

Probably around the point Brendan’s cut was significant enough that he started letting Naz’s **** slide.

 

I think in fairness naz got worse the more money and the bigger he got. It went to his head and he became harder and harder to deal with as it went along. To the point i think Brendan actually showed a bit of weakness in allowing it to go as far as it did.

Understandable really with how much the ingles all put in. Brendan was a great bloke by all accounts but even great blokes have flaws....he should have kicked naz out the gym sooner.