As much as i hated Naz, in his prime, he is very under-rated

When did this past his best bull**** start exactly?, he wasn't past his best when he fought Barrera and not even close to it.

 

:happy It's a dire attempt by Hamed fans to rationalize how he was exposed the first time he fought elite opposition. Never mind the fact he was 27 or that he produced the best performance of his career v the best opponent he ever fought other than MAB (Vuyani Bungu) only 1 year before the Barrera fight, he was "way past it" apparently. What utter dog****.

 

I've heard it said about many fighters always when they step up the quality of competition. Their decline seems to directly correlate to an increase in opponent quality. There is a link there somewhere but I can't quite work it out. :huh

 

One of my all-time favorite fighters. Nothing like watching a Naz fight. What a waste...

 

When Naz fought Barrera......

1. Naz was still in his prime yrs BUT was not at his very best as I felt he had better speed & reflexes in his early FWT reign... he never used to get hit nearly as much as he did in the 2 or 3 or so yrs leading up to the Barrera bout.
Naz overly relied on his power by the time he fought Barrera & simply was incapable physically of using the same unique style that he used vs Badillo & Robinson to great effect.

Do I think that version would have beat peak Barrera ? possibly not but only a fool would say that he wouldnt have given a better account of himself.


Regarding the Pac vs peak fighters debate... here is my view....

Pac vs....
Barrera 03 - Barrera was still peak tho his absolute peak was 2000-2002 but still peak IMO.
Marquez 04 - No question JMM was at his best.
Morales 05 - Showed signs of slowing down but produced last great effort.
Morales 06 - Looked worst of career previously v Raheem, had declined further more.
Morales 06 - Finished as a top fighter & struggled with weight aswell.
Barrera 07 - Good bit past his best, still capable fighter on world level.
Marquez 08 - Looks ALMOST as good as ever, still a great fighter.

Cheers.

 

I agree Naz was really something special and gets underrated here because most posters here don't like his attitude which is a shame. I really wish he would have come back after his loss it would have greatly helped his legacy.

 

Good post!

At Bantam weight he was immense and must have been one of the biggest punchers around.I think they said he punched like a middle weight IIRC. This was his downfall, he started just throwing Hayemakers and trying to rely on his reflexes / lean back defence. No matter how quick you are, doing this will leave you open. He also trained badly and come the Barrera fight he was not as good as he had been. I appreciate him more now than I did at the time.. guess it will be like that for a few of the Brit fighters.

 

just on natural talent alone naz was much better than barerra although barerra is the better boxer.

 

It's not so much that MAB was shot going into the first PAC fight, it's that he had a horrible, horrible camp. His former team exposed the fact that he had a metal plate in his head, and he had to go get recertified medically to fight, then he got burned out of camp by wildfires in So. Cal.

The combination of being slightly past his best days and the bad camp, plus the fact that nobody knew what a challenge Pac would turn out to be was a recipe for disaster all combined.

 

Do you seriously think that the reason Naz couldn't perform as effectively v Barrera as he could against Robinson and Badillo had more to do with Naz's change of style than the quality of opponent? I can't get my head around that at all. IMO, Naz was better against Bungu than he ever was before, and that was in 2000. The difference between the Robinson and Barrera fights was that one was against a guy who retired with a 32 wins to 17 losses, and one was to an ATG!

Fair enough assessment of Pac's wins, except I'd say Morales's loss to Raheem had more to do with weight than age, and that JMM was a better fighter by the time of his 2nd fight with Pac.

 

Complete bull**** and one of the most pathetic excuses I have ever seen. I have heard that he took it lightly countless times and just passed on that even though it's also complete bull**** but this one is way out of line.

 

Me neither. It's very intriguing... :think

 

pac, can't believe your still on this thread.

 

Only just popped back on there amigo! Can't really see why you're so concerned though!

 

i'm not, just got home from pub, trying to enjoy a light bit of banter with you . hey pacfan, i was sticking up for you earlier on this thread, some guy from edinburgh called smith who's nicked my avator called you names, i backed you up .
i dont care if you think hameds good, legendary or just plain shite, just passing time at work talking about a subject i love, thats all.