At what stage in Naz's career could he have beaten the Barrera he lost to.

it pains me to say it but probably never. however it'd be harder for barrera as naz used more angles against, say,robinson, but it also has to be said that robison was average at best. if barrera can refrain from trading he probably wins. but at the same time you can rarely count out a man of hamed's two fisted power. sal sanchez, pep, arguello,armstrong, and a few morenotables, but not barrera imo :good

 

Never! Naz always had his shortcomings, thats why he was dropped quite a bit. Barrera just took him to school and exposed all his unorthodox mistakes. I knew it was going to happen, and Barrera matched him on a strength level. Naz faced some good fighters, but he seemed to always have a big edge over them in the power department, which got him out of trouble alot.

 

Never

 

Barrera would always be the favourite due to the style he used that night. Hamed of, say, the Robinson or Badillo fight would have been a lot more of a challenge, though.

 

That is a good honest query.

I think naz's greatest liability was his dependence on his natural ability which was immense. In that I see the reason he could not deal with the tactical assault of Barrera.

By figuring he could beat anyone he made it possible, by failing to fortifying his defenses, to be beaten.

 

To be honest, the Barrera which fought McKinney & Jones could be hit & would be in trouble if caught cleanly. Marco learned alot from those losses(Jones, not McKinney) & reinvented himself to be a much improved fighter afterwards. Naz's fast hands & explosive power could have brought a sudden end to a fight with that version of Barrera very quickly.

 

I think that is the difference I noted. Naz did not change. He needed to and did not for whatever reason.

Good point on Barrera.

 

Yes, IMO. Had Naz fought after Barrera he would also have been a different fighter, a little more wiser for the experience with Barrera.

 

Great post, Naz himself was much better then, he stopped training as diligently post-97 too, if you watch the Naz-MAB documentary you'll see Naz was barely training at that stage. The early version of Hamed had better reactions, sharper, far more mobile with better movement. MAB became a far far more complete fighter post-Jones

So if Hamed replaced Junior Jones against MAB, he wins by KO, it would have been a war though and Naz probably goes down himself.

 

He was a shadow of the talent he was under Ingle.

Before he flounced out he might have been able win or he might not - there's really no way of telling.

 

The proper care and training of a fighter is a skill.

 

From 1995-97 or not at all, specifically the Steve Robinson fight, Barrera or Morales would have their work cut out vs that Naz, they would have to be on their game bigtime.