This might have been posted before, but still....

At the end of the day boxing is entertainment. For all his flaws, the Prince was entertaining, end of.

Naz was great for boxing, he brought in fans who would otherwise have no interest in the sport, or at most, a casual interest. Some, such as myself, stuck around. Of course skill and resume are what define great fighters, but where did you hear me say I thought he was an all-time great? Mayweather would have sparked Naz in 2 rounds, and quite rightly Mr Hamed wanted nothing to do with PBF when he was getting called out.

He was however, an exciting fighter to watch, he would talk shit, wind you up, possibly get knocked down, and then come right back at you trying to spark you out, and the ringwalks just added to the event, what wasn't to like? Love him, or as I'm guessing in your case, hate him, you watched. That's entertainment.

Ta-ra chook

 

He DEFINITELY put on a fun show, and he had genuine KO power with either hand. I also thought that with all the fouling Cesar Soto was doing, Naz was right to slam the guy. BUT...

 

...his biggest test was Barrera, and he folded like a house of cards. Hamed did some cheap cowardly shit like jumping up from the canvas and nailing Augie Sanchez with a sucker punch after Sanchez had dropped him and Sanchez was waiting for the ref to give a count. Hamed revelled in lipping off and being ignorant to opponents who were clearly outmatched and outgunned.

 

That's why he claimed he was going to rematch Barrera and got dropped by Manuel Calvo? GTF outta here. Barrera took his heart.

 

That's what it comes down to.

Barrera was the only prime world class fighter Hamed ever faced. He was dominated and embarrassed, and retired shortly after. The hamed hype train came to a vicious halt.

I can't believe how many morons thought Hamed would even beat Barrera, he was a 3-1 or 4-1 favourite to win :doh: ::

So no I don't respect Hamed.

As much as I hate other fighters like Lewis for example, at least Lennox proved he could bounce back from defeat and rematch the people that beat him.

Even if Lewis had lost to McCall or Rahman, I still would have respected him for having the rematches.

Like you said, Hamed folded, packed up shop and fucked off.

So Slice, yes I am absolutely denying that he possessed heart.

 

I can see your point bro, but I think it's unfair to say he didn't possess heart, I'll come to that in a bit.

By the way, regarding Naz-Barrera, that's the last time I went with my heart over my head, guess I just didn't want the run to end, even though I knew it would ::

In hindsight you can say he didn't fight world class guys, but Boom Boom Johnson, Medina, and to a much lesser extent, Robinson, were all considered world class and good challengers/champions at the time. Obviously no one is pretending they were in the class of Barrera but they were considered tough obstacles. You can't be that bad a fighter if you pretty much unify a division and reign undefeated for 5 or so years. Like Hut Hut said in another thread, I think if Naz had fought Barrera around 96 or so, I'm of the opinion he would have beaten him, or at least it would have been alot more competitive. Of course it's pretty much his own/Frank Warrens fault this never happened so he has to take the blame for it, and it could never be proven so I'm not gonna argue with those who think the result wouldn't have been any different, I just personally think it would have been.

Regarding his heart, withstanding what you think about Kelly as a fighter, there's no way you can say it didn't take heart to do what he did in that fight, on his American debut, with the eyes of the world on him, the monumental pressure he placed on himself, coupled with the worst possible start you could get off to. MANY fighters would have crumbled under all that, but he pulled it out. Not to mention he took an absolute shellacking against MAB but stayed on his feet till the end. The dude had heart.