During the Barrera fighter intros, Hamed was literally handed the microphone to deliver a muslim prayer (the Shihada). The audience was told "to honor his father and heritage he has requested to say a few words". Before the Augie Sanchez fight Michael buffer actually says in Arabic ""allah akbar" along with a short prayer. I have never seen this before with any fighter (Muslim, Christian, Jewish etc). Maybe some religious fervor in the post fight interview with the typical "thank you God for letting me win". The special treatment shown to Naz seems above and beyond before the fight. Considering the faith of his opponents were never mentioned nor were any of them given the microphone. Did the Hamed camp have these religious requests stipulated into the fight contracts? Were theses prayers said to cater to the massive Middle Eastern audience that watched Naz's fights (e.g. Yemen, Saudi Arabia)? Can you recall any any other fighters being given alone time on the mic before a fight to make religious announcements? Andre Ward and Pacquiao are very open to religious talk yet nothing close to what Hamed displayed.
Ali,when he first converted to being a muslim back in the 60's, used to make a big show of doing some prayer stuff over in his corner and delaying the fight start. Somebody like Baer or Dempsey would have probably rushed over and c0ld-b0cked him while he was j@Kking around.
It was another Hamed gimmick, possible in the pre-9/11 era (by a few months) but unthinkable now. To be fair, Hamed WAS from a very religious background and family, and he'd spent the last 5 years entering the ring (eventually !) to sub-standard dance music, doing his crazy dancing and strutting around in pantomime arrogance (remember his 5 minute dance behind the screen before the Kelley fight :rofl). I guess he owed his family and religious community a bit of pre-fight Islamism, after all that westernized nonsense.
I do feel Hamed was religious at the start and his intentions were good, by the time the Barerra fight came along he'd developed silk pyjama syndrome. (See Little Prince, Big Fight documentary). I do know, the fight against Bungu Hamed said the Shahadah out loud in response to Bungus voodoo chants and the faith healer who was accompanying him. I personally don't agree with what Hamed did, but he was more than entitled to do what he wanted. What did **** me off was Larry Merchants comment during the Kevin Kelly fight intro where he said 'It is the end of western civilisation' Foreman had to pull him back and say 'i like this guy'. Merchant is a racist pos anyway imo.
When all this started to happen Hamad was all but finished his brothers had taken over and he stopped training .a waste.
