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RSR Looks Back at Prince Naseem Hamed – A Rare Talent from a Stand-Out Period

  By Mike “Rubber Warrior” Plunkett

The mid-90’s was for me a terrifically bright period in the sport of boxing. Bernard Hopkins was just coming into his own having won his first major world title. Roy Jones JR, an almost supernatural talent at that point in time, was the new IBF super middleweight king. Pernell Whitaker had come down a notch or two and was beginning to have to really dig down in order to come out on top in his ring assignments. Julio Cesar Chavez was a quart low but still fun to watch. Up and comers such as Kostya Tszyu and Marco Antonio Barrera captivated those that followed them to the point of their first world championships and Oscar De La Hoya had what I consider to be his first really significant win, a breakout performance with his two-round blowout of Rafael Ruelas for the IBF Lightweight title. And to top all of that off, the world watched as the post-prison variant of “Iron” Mike Tyson set about on his journey to recapture the glory of the previous decade by embarking on a comeback in a career that by that point proved to be more sensationalism than actual substance. In my opinion, it was the most interesting period in the sport since the early-80’s, highlighted by extraordinary talent and colorful characters bent upon proving themselves inside the squared-circle, but perhaps none of them captured my curiosity and attention more than a particularly gifted and obnoxiously boastful featherweight out of Sheffield, England, Naseem Hamed.

Like many of the aforementioned fighters, “The Prince” exuded desire, hunger and talent, but what drew me in were the headlines and subsequent waves he created apart from a given explosive result; the openly boastful statements that were delivered with a cockiness rarely seen since the emergence of a young Cassius Clay decades before. My good fight buddy Jeremy, a collector of bouts from all around the globe aimed me at Hamed, commenting that the Englishman was as much fun in the ring as he was post-fight jack-ass. That made review of the diminutive Englishman mandatory for me, but as I quickly learned, behind those brash utterances was an increasingly impressive, if deliciously flawed body of work. Hamed was more than a run of the mill obnoxious loudmouth with delusions of greatness, he had an uncanny knack for coming out on top after the holes in his game put him in jeopardy, and he usually did it in dramatic, explosive fashion. God-given athletic abilities bundled with obscene punching power were the talk of the media, but it was the holes in his game, his unconventional foundation as a prizefighter and the chinks in his armor which rounded him out as great fun in the ring and a must-see fighter for his time.

Standing a hair over 5’3 and with a lean and unspectacular physique that seemed to contradict a rare blend of athletic ability and unusual fight-ending power, Hamed began his professional career in 1992 at an age when most young men are more concerned about borrowing their father’s car on a Friday night than at focusing on a career of fighting professional, grown men in search of a major world title. Starting out as a flyweight, Hamed quickly made a name for himself scoring early-round knockouts against the usual array of suspects and punching bags. The call of his body demanded he begin the process of moving northward through the bantamweight and super bantamweight ranks shortly thereafter. Along the way Hamed punctuated his promise of sheer greatness by winning the EBU Bantamweight title and the WBC International Super Bantamweight titles. Five short-order defenses of the latter strap positioned the “Prince” for yet another move up, this time to the featherweight division and a shot against Steve Robinson for the WBO Featherweight crown. Leading handedly on all cards, Hamed accelerated and dispatched Robinson in the 8th-round, giving him his first major world championship just three years into his career.

In June 1996 the fundamental flaws that would ultimately make “Prince” Naseem Hamed a fun fighter to watch came to the forefront during the second defense of his WBO title. Dropped early by undefeated power puncher Daniel Alicea, Hamed’s self-belief kicked-in. Shifting gears on the fly, Hamed reeled his challenger in and dropped both he and the curtain in short order in dramatic fashion. I was amazed at the mindset behind Hamed’s game. Typically such rare athletic ability and blistering hand speed were the sort of things a safety-first talent such as Roy Jones JR would use in the pursuit of prizefighting’s ultimate goal; hit and not be hit. But in the case of Naz, the opposite seemed true. The uncanny athletic ability and blistering hand speed were just the sort of attributes needed and used strictly for positioning, looking to drop those big fight-ending bombs, and defense be damned; the odd angles and at-times lack of proper balance and technique often put the Prince directly into harm’s way, thus providing fans with the opportunity for the kind of drama and excitement rarely part of such a gifted fighter’s game.

An early 1997 high-stakes unification showdown with IBF Featherweight champion Tom Johnson saw Naz further stake his claim as the best featherweight of the day after matters were waved off in the 8th-round in a bout that despite moments that illustrated his vulnerability to a sound and confident ring technician, he mostly dominated. Two additional title defenses, one of which was featured on American network television amounted to nothing more than glorified pit stops as they underlined the crushing fight-ending power and exciting ring style of “The Prince”, but it was his high-profile title defense in December of that year on HBO that illustrated the best and the worst of a fighter that had quickly become one of the most exciting talents of his time.

In a bout that Ring Magazine called Fight of the Year, Hamed exchanged multiple knockdowns with former WBC Featherweight champion Kevin Kelley, a talented practitioner himself not lacking for confidence. After rising from the canvas three times, an overtone of desperation was soundly punctuated by a single-shot knockout of Kelley just as matters had reached an undeniably crucial point. Such was the nature of the obviously flawed aspects of his game; HBO’s talking heads went to great pains to predict “The Prince’s” ultimate demise while at the same time acknowledging that a star had been born.

The year 1999 was indeed a pivotal turning point for Naz. Gone was Brendan Ingle, the man that essentially recognized the raw material that was in the beginning just a willing seven year-old boy, molding him over the course of many years into the well tuned and cocky fighting machine that came into his own about the time he was on a roll turning back the challenge of those looking to take his WBO Featherweight championship. Ironically, the departure of Ingle serves as a milestone; it is essentially the beginning of the end for a fighter that by rights should have been getting better with each showing, maturing into the role of champion with each given experience. Instead, there was a marked departure of sorts occurring. The little points that Ingle made Naz work on and, the finite details not easily picked up by those watching from the outside were no longer a part of his game. Flawed as Naz seemed, it worked for him when Ingle was behind him.

The respected voice that over time won over that young boy and that saw him into manhood was no longer there to push him. Instead Manny Steward of The Kronk Gym, one of the greatest trainers of all time was brought in to hone Hamed’s game; reign-in the uncanny skill set and smooth out those rough defensive edges. But regardless of the caliber of Steward, or anyone else in the world for that matter, “The Prince” was incomplete without the commanding presence of Ingle to dial-in the precise combination of instructions, flawed as they may sometimes have seemed.

So unique was their chemistry, any other trainer, no matter how experienced and successful, would fail to blend with Hamed in quite that same way, and the result was less synergy. After struggling to stop a 21-0 Paul Ingle, a decent enough fighter but levels below Naz in the talent department, “The Prince” endured and ultimately muddled his way through a twelve-round foul-fest with a survival-intent Cesar Soto at the Joe Louis Arena in Detroit. Looking back, I was certain that the magic was all but gone.

After an impressive 4th-round knockout over Vuyani Bungu, the former IBF Super Bantamweight champion in March 2000, many were of the opinion that Naz had given his best showing in several years, and that he was once again moving forward towards greatness under the tutelage of Steward. Still, I had my doubts. You see, Marco Antonio Barrera was in line for a mandatory crack at Hamed sometime down the road. Barrera was in rebuild-mode after losing successive bouts to Junior Jones some four years before. After having watched him edge Erik Morales only to lose a controversial split decision the month before the Bungu bout, it was clear to me that Barrera had returned to form. By the time Naz absorbed unnecessary punishment before decimating the far less gifted but dangerous Augie Sanchez, a brazen approximate of a seasoned world-class professional in August of that year, I was firmly of the opinion he had not developed enough to turn back Barrera should they meet at any point in 2001. A few months later when I saw Barrera utterly outclass and disassemble remnants of Jesus Salud with the precision of a surgeon, I was certain that barring a well-placed straight left, Naz had next to no chance with “The Baby Faced Assassin” who looked to have found a second peak.

The year 2001 essentially marks the end of “Prince” Naseem Hamed as a world-class fighter and as a force to be reckoned with. So thoroughly was he out-fought during those heated moments where leather was exchanged, and so adroitly out maneuvered throughout, one would have figure the Englishman to be a mere greenhorn taken to school by a wily old ring veteran as opposed to being an experienced world champion systematically stripped of his confidence and standing. For twelve rounds a boxing Barrera zigged when Hamed zagged, taking the WBO Featherweight title and effectively proving to both “The Prince” and the world that the magic had long since vanished. So thorough was the shellacking, one could be forgiven for asking aloud what was the point of a contracted rematch given that Naz seemed unable to land anything on Barrera. Looking back, Hamed must have felt the same way. Dragging his feet and ignoring the signing deadline and the subsequent extension of it on the contracted rematch, it was clear that Hamed no longer wanted to fight, or rather believed he could fight. The point was further driven home by his final ring appearance a year later, a lackluster twelve-round waltz with nondescript Manuel Calvo, cannon-fodder disguised as a gritty Spaniard journeyman.

I’ve revisited the idea on writing about “Prince” Naseem Hamed many times over the last three years, only now making peace with his anti-climactic and less than prideful exit; finding only recently the desire to sit down and revisit the career of a man that once stood out in one of the most glorious periods in boxing over the last thirty years. I found it hard to accept that Hamed was actually well beaten long before he actually lost. He was a fun and forceful diversion for me at a point when there was a lot of serious standout talent in the sport. His ludicrous utterances, non-conventional application of aggression, cocky nature and willingness to plug forward despite the torpedoes was titillating stuff, especially when one considered the less than granite state of his chin. It all equated to sheer fun, but like the best merry go-rounds, the fun and the music has to end sometime, and in the case of “Prince” Naseem Hamed, the music stopped long before the ride had ended.

Naseem Hamed
Nickname:  “Prince”
Division: Featherweight
Professional Record:  36-1, 31 KO's

Date       Opponent                  Location                  Result

1992-04-14 Ricky Beard               Mansfield, United Kingdom W KO   2
1992-04-25 Shaun Norman              Manchester, United Kingdo W KO   2
1992-05-23 Andrew Bloomer            Birmingham, United Kingdo W TKO  2
1992-07-14 Miguel Matthews           Mayfair, United Kingdom   W KO   3
1992-10-07 Des Gargano               Sunderland, United Kingdo W KO   4
1992-11-12 Peter Buckley             Liverpool, United Kingdom W PTS  6
1993-02-24 Alan Ley                  Wembley, United Kingdom   W KO   2
1993-05-26 Kevin Jenkins             Mansfield, United Kingdom W TKO  3
1993-09-24 Chris Clarkson            Dublin, Ireland           W KO   2

1994-01-29 Peter Buckley             Cardiff, United Kingdom   W TKO  4
1994-04-09 John Miceli               Mansfield, United Kingdom W KO   1
1994-05-11 Vincenzo Belcastro        Sheffield, United Kingdom W UD  12
        EBU (European) Bantamweight Title
1994-08-17 Antonio Picardi           Sheffield, United Kingdom W TKO  3
        EBU (European) Bantamweight Title
1994-10-12 Freddy Cruz               Sheffield, United Kingdom W TKO  6
        vacant WBC International Super Bantamweight Title
1994-11-19 Laureano Ramirez Padilla  Cardiff, United Kingdom   W TKO  3
        WBC International Super Bantamweight Title

1995-01-21 Armando Castro            Glasgow, United Kingdom   W KO   4
        WBC International Super Bantamweight Title
1995-03-04 Sergio Rafael Liendo      Livingston, United Kingdo W KO   2
        WBC International Super Bantamweight Title
1995-05-06 Enrique Angeles           Shepton Mallet, United Ki W KO   2
        WBC International Super Bantamweight Title
1995-07-01 Juan Polo Perez           Kensington, United Kingdo W KO   2
        WBC International Super Bantamweight Title
1995-09-30 Steve Robinson            Cardiff, United Kingdom   W TKO  8
        WBO Featherweight Title

1996-03-16 Said Lawal                Glasgow, United Kingdom   W KO   1
        WBO Featherweight Title
1996-06-08 Daniel Alicea             Newcastle, United Kingdom W TKO  2
        WBO Featherweight Title
1996-08-31 Manuel Medina             Dublin, Ireland           W TKO 11
        WBO Featherweight Title
1996-11-09 Remigio Daniel Molina     Manchester, United Kingdo W TKO  2
        WBO Featherweight Title

1997-02-08 Tom Johnson               Millwall, United Kingdom  W TKO  8
        IBF Featherweight Title
        WBO Featherweight Title
1997-05-03 Billy Hardy               Manchester, United Kingdo W TKO  1
        IBF Featherweight Title
        WBO Featherweight Title
1997-07-19 Juan Gerardo Cabrera      Wembley, United Kingdom   W TKO  2
        IBF Featherweight Title
        WBO Featherweight Title
1997-10-11 Jose Badillo              Sheffield, United Kingdom W TKO  7
        WBO Featherweight Title
1997-12-19 Kevin Kelley              New York, USA             W KO   4
        WBO Featherweight Title

1998-04-18 Wilfredo Vazquez          Manchester, United Kingdo W TKO  7
        WBO Featherweight Title
1998-10-31 Wayne McCullough          Atlantic City, USA        W UD  12
        WBO Featherweight Title
1999-04-10 Paul Ingle                Manchester, United Kingdo W TKO 11
        WBO Featherweight Title
1999-10-22 Cesar Soto                Detroit, USA              W UD  12
        WBC Featherweight Title
        WBO Featherweight Title

2000-03-11 Vuyani Bungu              Kensington, United Kingdo W TKO  4
        WBO Featherweight Title
2000-08-19 Augie Sanchez             Mashantucket, USA         W TKO  4
        WBO Featherweight Title

2001-04-07 Marco Antonio Barrera     Las Vegas, USA            L UD  12
        vacant IBO International Boxing Organisation Featherweight Title

2002-05-18 Manuel Calvo              Dockland, United Kingdom  W UD  12

vacant IBO International Boxing Organisation Featherweight Title

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