What makes people say Hamed wasn't prime vs Barrera?

Naseem's interest or lack of dated back to the McCullough fight, if theres any real Naz fans like myself... He wasnt an animal anymore and he'd made enough money.

That said, Barrera was unreal and he looked unbeatable that night. But a Prime Naz who was bouncing people allover that focused on reflexes and speed over power, makes it more interesting.

 

The fact they can not understand that when you step up in class, and he stepped up big you tend to look worse than against fighters on lower level, nice example is Bute once he stepped up he got KTFO was his past prime NO he just isnt on taht level.
Hamed just wasnt on level of JMM, MAB, Morales, Pac etc he never proved himself against the best while these guys did it, the fact that he was entertaining made him many deluded fans that are not able to understand that he just wasnt on ATG level, faced ATG and lost end of story.

 

I'm a fan of both Barrera and Hamed.

***********.youtube.com/watch?v=tca3rs3v0to

Watch this interview.

He explains what happened with the Barerra fight. HBO made him an offer he couldn't refuse. He had to kill himself to lose 2 stone quickly after being out of action for 7 months due to a hand injury and only made weight on the day of the weigh in. He said himself it was a dangerous fight for him and hes suprised that he lasted 12 rounds because he had no power due to being drained and was extremely vunerable.

Before the Naz haters come in watch the interview carefully. Naz clearly gives Barerra the full credit that he deserves for the win. He admits he lost to a better man on the night.

I think with the above combined including the huge self believe he probably thought he only had to turn up on the night and the victory would have been his.

Respect to Naz still. Tells it how it is.

 

He was in his prime. Mentally he wasn't all there but that's just an excuse. Really his own fault.

 

Steady decline after leaving Ingle.

Ingle understood that Hamed's strength was his unorthodox style. Steward was a one-dimensional trainer and tried to turn Hamed into a stand-up, orthodox fighter- it was moronic.

For reference, look at Hamed's fight vs Tom Johnson and then his fight against Paul Ingle. Against Ingle he took a lot of unnecessary punishment.

 

^^ True.

If it isn't broken. Don't fix it.

 

Well when looking at Hameds previous fights he never faced fighter as good as MAB so its not exactly comparable.

It wasnt broken against lower level of fighters when he faced MAB caliber he would always lose, not only did he lose but he run away from the sport:tired his fans overrate him big time its sad, maybe i underrate him but one thing is sure he isnt even close to being ATG!!!

 

People fail to realise that Barrera never came out of 2nd gear in that fight.

That's how easily he dealt with Hamed.

For the first time Hamed fought a guy who could judge distance and time him.

 

What he should have done is had a tune up fight (or 2) after his hand recovered and then fought barrera.

People make it sound like Hamed was whitewashed by Barerra which is nonsense. He lost by around 3-4 points if I remember correctly. Frank ****** offered Barrera and Azuma Nelson the fight earlier on in Naz's career but they both declined. Hmm I wonder why..In my opinion if Barrera fought Naz in his prime he would have gotten knocked out. Barerra admitted that the Hamed fight was one of strategy. He didn't box his usual brawling type of style. If he did, he would have been KOed. Boxers have their time and they all fade away. It's human nature.

He had one fight after barrerra and won. Although it was a boring fight maybe he fell out of love with the sport who knows. In the interview I posted he says he was having more problems with his hands and that he just wanted to spend time with his family and enjoy his success. Hats to him for having a very successful career. ATG or not, he has a decent resume, was good for the sport and 12 years on people still mention his name therefore in my opinion he made his mark in boxing.

 

Arguably the most impressive win of Hamed's career (Bungu) came after leaving Ingle and only a year before the Barrera loss.

That strength could also be a liability against world class opposition (eg Kelley, Medina). By most accounts Brendan Ingle's influence on Naz in the later days was negligible anyway.

You can just as easily compare the ease with which he dispatched Bungu to getting knocked down against a green, unproven Alicea. Styles make fights - Ingle was a handful for as long as he was in the fight. Johnson was an orthodox boxer, who to be fair made it competitive at times in their fight.

 

He didn't seem to be struggling with the weight in the documentary that covered the run-in to the fight.

 

That's what I thought, and I find it odd than we're only just finding out about this 12 years later.

Either way, he'd never have found himself 2 stone overweight if he'd been with Brendan, even if he'd been out for longer than 7 months.

His brother Riath cut Brendan out, and it was all downhill from there. Brendan treat Naz like a son, and he saw him everyday from being 7, taking him up and down the country. Naz should be ashamed of himself!

 

Brendan betrayed Naz with the tell all book 'the paddy and the prince'.

He sold naz for some extra cash. Would you stick with brendan after that?

A trainer from the wincobank area in sheffield told me that Brendan even tried touching Naz's feet. He was so ashamed of himself he stooped to that point to ask for forgiveness.

Naz is a private person who kept alot to himself. Brendans beef with Naz was always down to money.

 

You can say that he betrayed him with the book, but if what was in it was true, then Naz was to blame. I think everything in the book was true. There's excerpts from Brendan's diary, that tell how he was just doing as he pleased, and that the money had gone to his head. Naz and Ryan Rhodes were really close. They were best mates. But after he left Brendan they hardly kept in touch.

Brendan says that their agreement was perfectly fine until Naz started making huge money.

He was happy to give Brendan £250 from a £1000, and £2,500 from £10,000.

But when he started making huge money, he didn't want to pay him. As soon as his brother Riath came on the scene to deal with the business side of things, they cut him out by taking the ****. His Dad Sal tried to rectify things because he had a huge amount of respect for Brendan. But by that time it was too late. Naz is solely responsible for how things turned out.

Who was the trainer that told you that?

Things started to go down hill as soon as he left Brendan. He hired Oscar Suarez who let him do whatever he wanted. He had his own gym built in Sheffield, which he hardly ever used, and he hired Manny Steward for the MAB fight and didn't even listen to him.

I mentioned this in the other thread yesterday.

Manny couldn't commit to the full camp for the MAB fight, because of other commitments. But he told Riath that he was sending them some tapes of MAB that he wanted Naz to study. But when he arrived in camp a few weeks later, he found that the tapes had never even been taken out of the box that they'd been sent in. They'd just been completely ignored. Instead, Naz, Riath and other members of the camp were sat watching MAB's 1995 defeat to Junior Jones. Manny was fuming! He said to Naz, "Naz! Why are you watching that tape? That was from 7-8 years ago, and that is NOT the Barrera that you're going to be facing!"

He got greedy and lost his dedication.

Then after the MAB loss, he said it was the path that Allah had set for him.

I don't believe the weight loss excuse, but even if it was true, it would never have happened when Brendan was on board. Even if Naz couldn't hit the bag or spar etc, he'd still have been in the gym everyday with Ryan Rhodes and everyone else. He'd never have put 2 stone on.

 

I always knew Hamed would get schooled as soon as he fought an elite fighter like Barrera or Morales and he did. End of story...he was an entertaining fighter but more hype and show than substance.