Naseem Hamed Career Recap

Mentally crumbled at the very top

 

This.

He was crapping bricks during the intros in the barrera fight.

 

This is true
There was self doubt
No shame though he hit great heights
Probably reinvigorated boxing

 

He knew he wasn't prepared. I would imagine as an elite professional boxer you are extremely self-aware of your condition to fight and it's well-documented that Hamed was not taking camp seriously for the Barrera fight, whereas Barrera himself was like a man possessed. It probably dawned on Hamed in that moment, seeing Barrera in the ring, that he knew he was not ready... "It was at this moment Naseem knew.... He f**ked up".

 

Exactly how it went down
Could have maybe made it razor close if he was under ingle
Imo

 

I remember when Naz was chasing and calling out for this fight, deep down I always thought no you don't need this, this guy will fcuk you up and I believe he knew it within himself anyway, but bravado comes before the duck so credit to him for taking it...

Shame he swerved the rematch though.

 

Always rooted for naz he took the title from a family opponents former foe

 

Very good fighter naz but looking back its hard not to put him down as a bit of a bully. When he found an opponent he couldn,t humiliate...he packed up and ran off.

Cant take away that he was a great fighter tho. Great too watch. Think the medina fight revealed he was on a hiding against a great fighter tho. Medina hit him a lot....was quite a competetive fight if i remember rightly. We got excuses for that fight just like after the barrera fight.

He probably did have some valid excuses against barrera....dont think it would have changed the result regardless. No shame losing to barrera tho is there.

 

Probably true mate. I think he did have a heavy cold tbf...but he couldnt really handle getting hit either. He never really could. He could dish it out but if someone was competetive....his mind went a bit. Began wrestling with opponents/showing serious signs of frustration as the level of opponent went up. if he couldnt humiliate or handle them with ease.

Most of the good fighters he fought we,re on the downward spiral....guys with 50 tough fights etc....whereas the prime guys he fought we,re usually trash. Nothing really showed he,d have beat barrera in hindsight. Tbf tho...medina was decent anyway. He was a bit of a veteran but a good veteran...that would have been a tricky night for most at naz,s stage of his career. Post a bit negative because naz was a great fighter....just wasnt quite on the level of barrera. Although tbf i think they we,re a bit wary of him at one point. Hence why barrera kind of changed his style for that fight....which kind of does show he respected him enough to do it.

 

The psychology is a little deeper than that.

Perhaps he didn’t take camp seriously to give himself an out ... if he devotes himself in camp and loses, there’s no excuse. This way, he had one.

Regardless, it’s not like the fight wasn’t scheduled far enough ahead for him to train. If he chose not to, that’s a weakness in and of itself that got exposed.

Any way you cut it, he was shown to not have it at the top level. If he did, he would have gotten back in shape and gotten a rematch to show he was the better man. Instead, he knew the score and noped the frack out and retired.

 

He did pal. I knew him at the time.

 

Naz was due to box Barrerra years before. He was sat ringside in Florida when Junior Jones knocked him out. Jones then beat him again in the rematch.
At that time Naz would have destroyed Barrerra.