Firstly, Hamed was not a hype job and its untrue to say that he "didn't beat anyone". Steve Robinson was the WBO belt holder, and a ranked Top 10 Featherweight. Hamed stopped him in 8. Tom Johnson was the IBF belt holder, and ranked as the Number 1 Featherweight in the world at the time. Hamed stopped him in 8. Kevin Kelley was a two-time champ and ranked inside the Top 5. Hamed stopped him inside 4 rounds. Manuel Medina was a five-time world titlist and a Top 10 ranked Featherweight. Hamed finished him in the 11th. Wilfredo Vasquez was a three-weight world champion, the WBA belt holder at the time, and was ranked inside the Top 10. Hamed stopped him in 7. Wayne McCullough had gone the distance with a prime Eric Morales and went on to capture a world title, Hamed dominated him from start to finish. Cesar Soto was the WBC champ, and ranked inside the Top 5. Hamed breezed to the decision. A prime Paul Ingle was another world champ with a Top 3 ranking. Hamed won via TKO in the 11th. Vuyani Bungu was a long reigning IBF belt holder, in his prime, and ranked Number 4 in the division. Hamed stopped him inside 4 rounds. Secondly, Hamed didn't "duck" anyone. Hamed's peak years were 95/96/97. Barrera and Morales were not in his weight class, they didn't move up to FW until 2001/2002 respectively. The biggest joke of all is the one that suggests Hamed ducked Marquez. With all due respect to DINAMITA, the guy was a nobody when Hamed was the FW king and ranked amongst the P4P Elite in the sport. JMM was never ranked higher than 6th at FW by The Ring during Hamed's reign. In fact, Marquez didn't hold a world title until 2 years after Hamed had retired! In 1999, when Hamed was busy smashing the **** out of Vuyani Bungu, a man who'd made 14 succesful defences of his title, JMM was soundly defeated by Freddie Norwood. After this defeat, why would Hamed by interested in a guy with no title and seemingly no hope of defeating an elite fighter like the Prince? Well, in fact, Hamed WAS interested. In 2000, JMM, on the back of the defeat to Norwood, and seemingly having a crisis of confidence, was offered a fight with Hamed, and DECLINED. To summarize, Hamed beat a total of 8 past, present or future World Champions - all but one of whom (McCullough) were ranked comfortably inside the Top 10 at FW at the time. The Prince captured 3 World titles, and made 15 succesful defences of his WBO belt. He beat every champion in the division at the time, thus unifying the division and becoming the linear, legitimate, Featherweight Champion of the World. Now, it's true Hamed never beat another elite. He was soundly defeated by Barrera. He retired at 27. He wasn't as good at Manny etc. etc. etc. These issues don't change the fact that Naseem Hamed was an excellent and unqiue fighter and showman, who had a fantastic career, and did absolute wonders for the sport of boxing. You can shove your HOF's up your ****. I rest my case.

Back then everyone knew Barrera was a serious fighter & wind back years they were both on a collision course. Jnr Jones was a setback for Barrera but his team adjusted & made him more complete. Barrera V Morales 1 was all they needed to know but they slept on Barrera. Barrera schooled Hamed literally taught him a huge lesson wake up call. I was devastated utterly devastated but I knew pre fight Hamed wasn’t going to win.

I just clicked on this because steve bunce has hair on thumbnail

@Chaos4190 Right, that's it. (eye roll)

Naz forgot how to box when Antonio turned up

You only had to break the two styles down to see the likely outcome for that fight.

Barry "The way to beat Hamed is pressure." In actual fact Barrera beat Hamed in exactly the opposite way. He countered the counter puncher and then changed to being a pressure fighter around round 11-12 when Hamed had nothing left. Brilliant tactics.

@frisbyrb5 Comments like yours makes me extremely happy and it is just like you took the thoughts out of my head, words out of my mouth, and use your fingers to put it on youtube! Thank you! Barrera not only beat Hammed, he took his mind and soul with him to Mexico

Naz reminded me of roy jones, in as much as when his athletic attributes started to decline , he wasn't the same fighter as before .. they started to touch him, i honestly believe that 1998 naz beats barrera

@ProfRogers Yep. I watched Naz fight Manuel Medina and I knew then that whoever would beat the prince would do so by boxing, not by pressure or big punching.

I watched Naz has a youth coming up through the ranks, I also new about Barrera. By the way he’s also a lawyer and was back then. I always said that he wouldn’t win against Barrera and there are many reasons why. Hamed wasn’t in love with the game at the time of the fight. He got lazy cut corners and believed his own hype. Barrera on the other hand was still committed, his poor background driving him on. I loved hamed believe it or not but I knew it was a wrong fight until he sorted himself and all his boxing problems out. He was great through, no denying that.

Steve Bunce was right on the money, as usual.

I know but a cup of drink thrown from metres away, he was barely splashed. I used to box and water (like blood) wipes straight off leather gloves. I think maybe he just got too unsettled by hate coming from the crowd. But I did hear that excuse about the higher ropes being mentioned on skysports boxing show 'ringside' a week after the fight.

"I think Nas is too smart for him." Nice one Nostradamus.

what's interesting is that these so called "harshest judges" had naseem going into this fight as the stepping stone for his "legendary" career, but for some reason this was never a defining moment for barrera's career. To us in the US Barrera is more known for his wars with Morales or the fight with Pacquiao and/or Marquez.

Naz is the career that should have been so much better, the argument is he could/should have dedicated himself to the game better, listened to his coach's better than he did, he will be regreting this now, even though he is loaded, yet his legacy would have been better for the UK/Yeman fans of his that loved him. His style/arrogance was as fresh since Ali, no doubt, he grew my love for the game as i was young. He should have done more in the game!

@cjaguar1 I Agree Barrera had way too much experience and he was best at Superbantam/Featherweight. I can only guess through time whether or not Khan will be in the same class as Barrera. Probably not....

He said that was the reason in a post fight interview, so a thrown drink soaked the palms of his gloves? and he could'nt of just wiped them on his shorts? Watch a clip of the entrance when he prepared to do the flip normally the ropes are chest height here they are closer to his chin height.

@barrygreene007 mw vs naz would of been pretty interesting to watch, dont think nazs lunging power punches would do much against mw tho, he would get countered everytime

a young adam smith

@frisbyrb5 why???

The fact that they all say Hamed will win shows he was good.

it wasn't his last fight....

Good discussion, thanks for posting it. It's interesting to hear their comments after the fact. Sounds like Steven Bunce was the only one who thought Barrera would win. All three experts had great respect for Barrera though. They knew he was going to be a tough one to overcome. They were right about that.

Frisbyrb5. I agree with your opinion , too many idiotic excuses were put forward . He was always going to be beaten by a solid first class guy like berrera . The f wt division was bereft of talent except for marques whom naz avoided. For 3 solid years preferring to face bloody Augie Sanchez or Alicia or some way past his best old ex champ and wait for warren to tell everyone how great a warrior he had been 20 years. Ago.

I compare the Hamed defeat from Barrera to the same fashion that Pavlik lost to Hopkins. People have been beaten way worse than what Hamed took from Barrera.

It sure was a new era for Nas.

why should marquez take such a ridiculous split? also, why did hamed avoid the winner erik morales over barrera?

have you actually seen the fight? the cut was from a headbutt, not a punch. so if you look at the official rules of the WBC if injury is preventing a fighter from continuing a fight is not from a punch, the fight should be called a no contest before the first 4 rounds, OR should go to the score cards after. but we all know khan had homecourt advantage.

@frisbyrb5 i meant personality wise,Mayweather schooled Mosley,Judah,Hatton,Corrales,Marquez(but i wouldnt really count that fight,would be different story if Floyd was at 135).but he would make Barerra look like a Hobo looking for a drink of water after a serious night Boozing

you dont make sense i loved naz but what i mean is he could not get away with the trickery against a well schooled mexican i dont now what you are trying to say

@jason60152 thats different all together, marciano retired due to health reasons, he had beat everyone at the time, so he went out undeafted,im pretty certain if someone would of beat him and took his belt he would of wanted a rematch to avenge his loss, naz went out on a loss, bit cowardly really.

@theBIGbadwolf101----> to be fair i think nazs akward style was ok against most fighters at a certain level, but against a solid boxer with good fundemantals and foundation of the basics, it was no good, and i dont think naz could of changed his style at this stage in his career, without them akward power punchers he couldnt really box that well technically., this is basically why barrera beat him.

like all british fighters of the last 20 years

how was that a boxing lesson naz fought with his hands down. kevin kelly put naz down something antonio could never had done it was his last fight and the loss was already predicted.

@theBIGbadwolf101 how did hagler go out like naz, he wanted a rematch but was denied so quit, totally differenr senario, forman story is pretty similiar he was cocky and young and got beat he went away came back a stronger wiser man, naz is still retired i think... as for stewards comments, its in his best interest to say these things, he was naseems trainer it would make him look bad, didnt he also say hearns lost to hagler because hearns had a leg massage before there fight another excuse,

You can't beat Barrera with one big left. Barrera just moved outside of Naz's right foot and countered over and around Naz's right.Nothing fancy.

@frisbyrb5 a bit like Mayweather

I love how people on the comment section of KZfaq know more about boxing than a man who's been to most bigs fights in the last 30 years met every huge boxer you can imagine, and makes a lot of money writing about the sports,got his own boxing show and dedicates his whole life to the sport lol idiots

It was a bigger ring the ropes were 6" higher, he was scared that he'd fall on his face and look like an arse. In the end he just got beat and looked like an arse.

nas aint from the yemen he's from the steel city sheffield uk true legend but barrera exposed his weaknes's and gave him a lesson in boxing

Naseem could have fought Pacquiao...but he didn't. Woosy!

@barrygreene007 ? mayweathers hasnt lost, and mayweathers dosent get out boxed like naz did, mayweathers would school barrera like he did maquez.

@theBIGbadwolf101 ---> look at fighters like hagler, monzon who went on to make numerous title defences, why didnt they lake motivation once they reached the top, because they where the real deal who came from nothing and worked too hard to let it go, and the tyson vs mcbride comparison is totally diffirent, look when tyson lost his title to douglas, he didnt disappear he got the belt back, you keep going on about the coward remark,ok naz wasnt a coward,he had made enough money to retire on a L

Oh my, i can't believe these people saying that naz could of beat barrera but he let him win. Bullshit!!! Seriously, anyone with the ego of naz would never just let a guy beat him. Can't you see the fight? Naz tried knocking barreras head iff but barrera was so much better than naz, period. Thats like saying that someone who was thirsty as hell stranded in a desert would say no to an ice cold glass of water!!! These "fans" know close to nothing about boxing.

@theBIGbadwolf101 im not questioning the courage he and every other fighter has to step in the ring and risk there health, im questioning the way he went out after his loss, no rematch nothing just quits, barrera ripped them silk pajamas you talk about right off, what more insentive did he need, he got made to look ordinary, any normal fighter would of demanded a rematch asap, but naz being the Narcissist he is with his false sense of superioity dissappearred----->

@theBIGbadwolf101 ----> ok naz isnt a coward, lets just say he was scared to fight barrera again, and why are you comparing nazs loss to tyson vs mcbride, tyson was well past it, come on thats silly. what give you the impression that im prejudice towards naz, im nothing of the sort, im just stating my opinions.

What were you in his training camp? He was'nt focused for the biggest fight of his career? He prepared more for this than any of his previous fights. And winners mentality? He was his usual arrogant self boasting about victory the whole build up. No excuses he just was'nt as good as Barrera, and it was'nt until during the fight that he found this out. I remember following the build up to this fight everyday on sky, ironicly it was Naz who requested the bigger ring because it suited his style.

He only looked slow because he was fighting against a better fighter and when his normal style did'nt work he did'nt know what to do. No excuses Naz was in his prime here he was only 26/27? He just was'nt as good as Barrera.

he wont make it past maidana, and if he does bradley or alexander will humilliate him.

Steve Bunce what on earth are you wearing?!

@theBIGbadwolf101 so we have established naz lost because he didnt spar enough, that he underestimated barrera, that he lacked drive to train , that he signed for a rematch but for some unknown reason it never happened, anymore lame excuses you want to add to the list? hows about the weather? all the reasons you keep pointing out where all brought upon naz by himself, so you are belittling barreras effort to win the fight by keep going on about factors naz had full control---->

that shirt that buncey is wearing is terrible

@theBIGbadwolf101 this is just my opinion, im not hateful of naz, he was a good fighter with talent, but end of the day all that bullshit talk and his head full of magic all came undone when he faced a more commited and true man, he got exposed simple, tell me why didnt he try for the rematch to avenge the loss? ill tell you why, because he new deep down he couldnt beat him, he knew barrera was the better man..why the ne er ?

ill give you this, your very good, good at making excuses, are you a criminal defence lawyer..., whos fault was it naz lost? naseems, he has no one to blame but himself, your arguments floored because the proofs there he lost the fight and didnt fight again, he signed to fight again with hbo, why didnt any fights happen, lets blame bruce lee for that one, so what he didnt spar enough, whos faults that, lets pin it on barrera----->

Kelly was out boxing him easily until he decided to go for ko and left himself wide open to silly shots , Medina was beating the shit out of him for 10 rounds until he ran out of steam after too many wars against top opposition unlike the clown who fought nobodies and old men .

excuses, he stepped up a league, and couldnt compete, simple, he got exposed as an akward power puncher, with no heart. one loss and his head falls to bits, he folds. a true champ, would of tryed to get the belt back.

it wasn't his last fight and naz was absolutely schooled how does naz having his hands down make a difference to barrera schooling him..ur a clown

Listen people, lets face facts. Hamed fought Barrera at even times, same ages, same path in careers and yet the winner dont get credit because Hamed didnt take it seriously!! Come on Buncey facts facts facts, Hamed met a world class fighter, and he lost. No ifs no buts, his biggest fight and he lost. Hamed at world level and thats world level Hamed couldnt produce the goods, simple.

Hatton was a better British boxer than Hamed

how old was barrera when he fought khan? how old was he when he humilliated hamed? why did hamed not fight morales who beat barrera earlier, or marquez his mandatory for 2 years but paid off the comittee to skip him. he was scared of them. dont even compare khan and barrera, barrera is ranked all time p4p #43, naseem or khan will never get close to that. not even pacquiao could KO barrera, when he did that is when he had brain surgery 5 months before.stop making excuses for him. he was overrated

@sf2explus man will ya watch the maqyweather-judah fight and learn your stuff, mayweather was in a bit of bother for four rounds and figured him out from then on..sick of your stupid comment

how could mcguigan and tibbs be talking about the clown as an all time great if anyone looks at the quality of his opponents he should not be rated above 20 in the fw division 30 of his opponents out of 37 had never faced a top. 10 rated guy in the wba wbc or ibf alicea and sanchez were not rated in the top 20 of any of the sanctioning bodies him and warren were a disgrace

Naz fucked up big time will never be remembered as a true boxing great only as a great British fighter

I would love to know how this clown was paid so much money for fighting guys Who were little better than amateurs also. when you talk about a fighters age it mostly means how many wars he has fought this is what ages a fighter most kevin kelley had been in far too many wars and just some months before the naz fight had taken a t,errible beating from morales likewise madinahad been in too many wars with berrera and marquez and other top guys and still naz refused kelley a return fight.

Prince Naseem could of had knocked Barrera out, thing is he was bored with boxing and had already achieved a lot anyway....