TALENTED Fighter, ZERO Punch Resistance....

His sparring didn't go well. Steward wasn't happy with the late nights too as well as the sparring + Naz was constantly changing his gloves leading up to the fight, so all in all it seemed that things were not quite up to scratch leading up to the Barrera fight.

 

That's because he didn't want the fight in the first place, I think he was wise enough to not fancy his chances.

He was shitting himself on the way to the ring, couldn't even muster up the courage to do his trademark rope flip into the ring.

 

Maybe that was down to the gloves not suiting him? He didn't seem his usual self as he made his entrance to the ring.

 

Yeah he had, quite clearly too IMO. I think I mentioned it to Loadedgloves previously, that if the public were made privy to the sparring footage which was later used in the "Little Prince, Big Fight" documentary PRIOR to the fight, nobody would have bet a penny on Hamed. He looked truly awful. That fight would have been a proper tear up in '96.

 

:atu:

Please tell me you don't believe that Jimmy. He could have whatever fucking gloves he wanted.

The fuss over the gloves was simply his fear manifesting in whatever way it could.

He knew he was up against the only prime, world class fighter of his career, and he didn't fancy it. He was happy feasting on the Vuyani Bungus of the world.

 

::

 

Even if he was cacking it before the fight (which I agree with), it doesn't change the fact he was a fighter in decline and wasn't taking training seriously at that point in his career.

 

He was never seriously buzzed in his life. Down, sure, but buzzed, never. If he was buzzed, he covered it up pretty well. Khan hasn't got a fraction of the constitution Naz had. The only two times Naz every really approached being stopped was when he fought Medina and Paul Ingle, and it was exhaustion and accumulation that was doing the damage. Ingle was a legitimate featherweight challenger, and Naz had flu the night he fought Medina. Naz had a run in with McCullough that night which was used to spice up their eventual meeting in 1998.

 

He hadn't been taking training seriously for years at that stage. He got away with it because he fought limited guys like Paul Ingle or because he was young enough at the time. Nobody ever brings it up, but Hamed was always around 2 stone out of shape at any given time. He didn't hang around the usual haunts so nobody ever picked up on it. By the late 90's/early 2000's he was just asking to get his arse kicked. The Soto fight was a sham, the McCullough fight involved Hamed dancing the night away once he realized he couldn't get shut of Wayne. He then reverted to everyones favourite crutch, namely religion, when he found himself in a spot of bother.

Granted, things went badly on the night with the gloves not fitting, but Hamed had talked shit about using lambskin gloves and also went on at length about slitting throats so fuck him.

 

I think it was Barrera that made him look that bad, and would have done the same thing to any version of Hamed. Hamed was not an elite fighter, or even close.

Was he also past prime against Medina, Ingle and Kelley? He looked pretty awful in those fights too.

I also thought he looked as good as he ever did thrashing little Bungu only a year earlier.

But that was basically Hamed all over. Look awesome destroying bums, but his retarded style was exposed against anyone decent.

 

augie sanchez

 

I think it had more to do with him worrying about his gloves slipping after getting pelted with the beer as he rode to the ring.

 

I disagree.

 

Allot better than he did against Sanchez or Calvo. FWIW, I thought he looked good against Kelly, he got caught a couple of times but otherwise dominated.

 

Kelley had him down, but compare the downs Kelley scored and the downs Naz scored. Kelley always looked more hurt.

 

Medina and Ingle were tough fights but he was well ahead in both fights, and they weren't bad fighters

 

Mex is dreaming if he thinks Manuel Calvo goes the distance with Hamed in 1995.

 

Well, there were some dudes who went the distance with him, like Belcastro and McCullough, and Medina and Ingle came within a round or so of doing it. Calvo could have been a hard man who would have gone 12 with any version, its possible, but Hamed would have beaten him worse in 1995 than in 2002.

 

Not sure you can use the Calvo fight as a benchmark. He looked awful in the Calvo fight, but I think that was mainly psychological. He had been found out basically, and he knew it.

 

Naz was a weight drained, skinny little bantam against Belcastro and still dropped him twice. McCullough had one of the best chins of all time, and you already mentioned the flu with Medina. I was a fan of Ingle but I honestly think Naz got complacent after dropping him in the first and went into auto pilot after that. If he wanted to I think he could have taken Ingle out in the opener.

 

Hamed's style had become a parody of itself by the naughties. Bungu was a dream for him but apart from that the trend was down. And even in that one his timing and reactions are evidently not what they were, his hands were lower, punches sloppier, movement looser & slower......

Not making excuses, Naz was never all that, but the chooofs de choof! The word de wind take but the sky aint beeeg enuff for de chooof! You cen believe on a cat for all I care.

 

Hut, must admit I'm amazed you like Hamed. To me, he is basically the poster boy of "Leap Amateurism".

 

I got nothing against naz. Nothing much for him either, i is just telling you de choof. He got beat in Las Vegas - de chooof! - and he said his god did it! Hey meng, i just telling you what he sed.

 

Naz had a weird style... but his comfort level in the ring from having boxed for most of his life gets me off the whole leap amateur thing with him.

 

:: :bears:

 

For me leap amateurism is about more than the 'leaping'. It's the indiscriminate punches, like guys are just mashing buttons. Flurrying to 'point touch'. And also just covering up and using range for defense. Amateurish shit. Naz was trying to hurt guys with picked shots, to me that isn't amateurish.....maybe you could say he was hippity hoppity though :: Or just plain sloppy....

 

I think Naz did a shit load of mindless leaping. Sure he did try and pick his shots at times, but half the time he just seemed to leap around like retard, without much skill or thought into what he was doing.

You could see the leap amateurism in play against Barrera. He didn't know what to do, he was out of his depth, so pretty much resorted to the odd amateurish leap, followed by accepting defeat and lasting the distance like a journeyman.

Honestly I think he's more of a leap amateur than Martinez, who actually has a decent jab and some boxing ability. Martinez does think about what he's doing the vast majority of the time, his style just happens to be a bit ugly and "leapy".

 

Hamed was CLEARLY a superior fighter to Martinez, come on now. You just being a sirry rittle Mexican Redding Shirt

 

Yeah, I agree with this.

 

Honestly, I think the last few years of Naz' career had more to do with falling in love with power and KOs than not knowing how to fight in the first place. I thought he had clearly regressed as a fighter.