Naseem Hamed

Naseem Hamed
Data
Birth Name	Naseem Hamed
Fight name	Prince
Weight class	Featherweight
nationality	British
birthday	February 12, 1974
place of birth	Sheffield
style	Legal display
size	1.64 m
Combat Statistics
Struggles	38
Victories	37
Knockout victories	31
Defeats	1

"Prince" Naseem Hamed (born on February 12, 1974 in Sheffield , England as Naseem Salom Ali Hamed ) is a former British professional boxer of Yemeni descent. He is a former European bantamweight champion of the EBU , international champion of the WBC in super bantamweight and former world champion of the WBO , IBF , WBC and IBO in featherweight.

He gained worldwide fame through his spectacular fighting style and his imaginative choreography of entering the ring. Due to his extraordinary ability to react and his high speed, he usually fought without cover, provoked his opponents with gestures and boxed them out in a "dance" manner.

Between 1999 and 2006 he held the honorary title of Member of the Order of the British Empire . In 2015 he was inducted into the International Boxing Hall of Fame .

Early career

Hamed started boxing at the age of seven and was soon considered a great talent. As an amateur, he won 62 of 67 fights and signed his first professional contract at the age of 18. His manager was his older brother Riath Hamed, he was trained by Emanuel Steward , Oscar Suarez and Brendan Ingle.

He won his professional debut on April 14, 1992 in Mansfield near Sheffield by knockout against Ricky Beard. By April 1994, he won ten more construction fights in Great Britain and Ireland , nine of them prematurely. He twice beat Peter Buckley, who played 300 professional fights over the course of his career.

First title fights

On May 11, 1994 he boxed against the Italian Vincenzo Belcastro for the EBU European bantamweight title and won the fight in Sheffield unanimously on points, with his opponent also twice on the ground. In August of the same year he also defended the title by technical knockout in the third round against Antonio Picardi, also from Italy.

Another success landed Hamed on October 12, 1994 in Sheffield, when he was able to defeat Freddy Cruz in the fight for the international title of the WBC in super bantamweight by TKO in the sixth round after the referee had taken Cruz out of the fight for inferiority. In November 1994 Hamed defeated the unbeaten Laureano Ramírez by TKO in his first title defense. The 1984 Dominican Olympian had given up the fight after a heavy knockdown in the third round. In the first seven months of 1995 he won four more title defenses, three of them within two rounds. This included the former IBF world champion Juan Polo Pérez . The Mexican Armando Castro, three-time World Cup challenger for the WBA and WBO associations, was taken out of the fight after heavy hits in the fourth round.

World champions and title defenses

On September 30, 1995, he boxed as a challenger in Cardiff for the WBO world featherweight title. His opponent was the title holder Steve Robinson , who won the world championship belt in 1993 and has already defended it seven times. Hamed dominated his opponent and also knocked him to the ground twice, with Robinson being taken out of the fight by the referee after the second knockdown in the eighth round.

In March 1996 he defended the title by knockout in the first round against the Nigerian Said Lawal and achieved one of the fastest knockouts in boxing history after just three seconds. Lawal had come up again, but was immediately knocked down again and taken out of the fight. The entire duel lasted just under 30 seconds. Hamed had been announced as "Britain's most exciting boxer" before the fight.

In June 1996, he made his next defense against undefeated Puerto Rican Daniel Alicea. Hamed had to take some hits due to his uncovered fighting style in the first round and went down for the first time in his career, but recovered and defeated his opponent in the second round with two heavy downfalls.

In August 1996 Hamed defeated the Mexican multiple world champion Manuel Medina by giving up his ring corner after the ring doctor had advised the fight to be stopped after the eleventh round. By then, Medina had already suffered three rainfall and was heavily marked.

In November 1996 he boxed against the unbeaten Argentine Remigio Molina, Olympic participant from 1992. Hamed hit his opponent at will, which is why the referee intervened in the second round and took Molina out of the fight.

On February 8, 1997, he combined his WBO title with the IBF title of the American Tom Johnson , who was already his twelfth title defense. Hamed had decided the aggressive fight with an uppercut in the eighth round, from which Johnson had not recovered.

He won the first defense of both titles safely in May 1997 by TKO in the first round against European champion Billy Hardy, followed by a victory by TKO in the second round against the Argentine Juan Cabrera in July of the same year. Since Hamed refused a subsequent fight against Hector Lizarraga , he was stripped of the IBF title. Lizarraga had never beaten anyone of the world and lost the IBF title in the first defense to Manuel Medina, who was defeated by Hamed in 1996. Hamed himself defended his remaining WBO title in October 1997 through TKO against Jose Badillo, who had already failed in an IBF World Championship fight in 1995 just on points to Tom Johnson.

In December 1997, on his US debut in New York's Madison Square Garden , Hamed met the American Kevin Kelley , former WBC world champion and ranked third in the world by the WBO. The fight turned out to be spectacular and action-packed. In the first round Hamed went to the ground for the second time in his career after a counter hit by the American and was also counted in the second round after he had touched the ring floor with his gloves after an impact hit. A few seconds later, Kelly also touched the ring floor after being thrown off balance in a wild exchange of blows. However, this was not counted as precipitation. Kelly, however, was counted after a knockdown around a minute before the end of the fight. Also in the fourth round Hamed was counted for touching the ground, Kelly also after another downfall. About 30 seconds before the end of the fourth round, Kelly was knocked to the ground again by a left hand and counted, Hamed was declared the winner by knockout.

In April 1998, Hamed beat three-time WBA world champion Wilfredo Vázquez , who had successfully defended 14 titles, in his tenth title defense . Vazquez went down four times during the fight and lost to TKO in the seventh round. In his second US fight, Hamed also won unanimously on points in Atlantic City in October 1998 , and thus not prematurely for the first time since 1994, against Wayne McCullough . McCullough was a former WBC world champion and 1992 Olympic silver medalist.

In April 1999 Hamed had another spectacular fight to contest when he faced the undefeated Paul Ingle in Manchester . Ingle went down in the first and sixth rounds, but gained the upper hand in the ninth and tenth round. In the eleventh round Hamed knocked his opponent to the ground with his left hand, whereupon the referee took him out of the fight. Hamed won by TKO.

In October 1999 Hamed also secured the WBC world title in Detroit by unanimously winning points against César Soto , who had only won the title in May 1999 and made his first defense against Hamed. Hamed was stripped of the WBC title because, according to the rules in force at the time, he should have resigned his WBO title.

In March 2000, Hamed defeated the South African ex-IBF world champion Vuyani Bungu by TKO in the fourth round. Referee Joe Cortez ended the bout after a heavy knockdown on Bungu in the fourth round.

In his 15th WBO title defense on August 19, 2000, Hamed met Augie Sanchez . He had defeated Floyd Mayweather Jr. among the amateurs and was known for his clout. In the powerful duel, Sanchez landed strong hits, which led to a bleeding nose injury at Hamed and scored a knockdown in the second round with two head hits, which, however, was not recognized as such by referee Mike Ortega. In the fourth round, however, Hamed prevailed and defeated his opponent by TKO, whereupon he could not get on his feet for minutes and had to be brought out of the ring with a stretcher.

A compulsory defense against István Kovács , dated November 4, 2000, was canceled by Hamed, as Kovács , who had previously only appeared in Hungary and Germany , was viewed by the US television provider Home Box Office as an unattractive choice. So Hamed was only offered a fraction of his usual wallet. Hamed then decided to give up his WBO title in September 2000.

Loss of title and final battle

Due to his casual and provocative way of fighting, Hamed enjoyed enormous media attention at the height of his career in the otherwise little-noticed featherweight division. While he was celebrated by a large fan base for his supposed "invincibility", he was increasingly criticized and sometimes ridiculed by the specialist press for his inadequate technology and poor cover work. For example, it was said that he was doing everything wrong in the ring, except losing. His fighting style relies too much on his clout, against stronger and technically superior opponents this will eventually no longer be sufficient.

On April 7, 2001, he boxed at the MGM Grand Hotel in Las Vegas against the Mexican Marco Barrera , multiple WBO super bantamweight champion, who had been promoted to featherweight for this fight. The duel was about the IBO world championship title. From the first round on, Barrera dominated the fight with his fast counterattack and repeatedly landed hits on the head of Hamed, who was fighting without cover, who in return could never bring Barrera into trouble. In the course of the fight there had also been some unsportsmanlike behavior, which among other things led to a point deduction against Barrera in the twelfth round. In the end, however, Barrera had unanimously and clearly prevailed on points (116: 111, twice 115: 112) and thus ended Hamed's winning streak and myth. Barrera had landed 228 hits from 534 strokes, Hamed 141 from 390.

After more than a year Hamed returned for one last fight in the ring and defeated the Spanish European Champion Manuel Calvo unanimously on points in London on May 18, 2002 . He had won the IBO Featherweight World Championship with it, but seemed slow and out of shape in the fight. Shortly after the duel, Hamed announced his retirement from boxing.

After the active career

In May 2006 he was sentenced to 15 months in prison for negligent assault after a traffic accident, but was released early from prison in Doncaster / South Yorkshire on September 4, 2006. In the course of the conviction, his knightly order, Member of the Order of the British Empire, was revoked by the British Queen in 2006, as his misconduct proved to be unworthy of continuing this honorary award.

In 2015 "Prince" Naseem Hamed was inducted into the International Boxing Hall of Fame .

Career data

Record as an amateur: 67 fights, 62 wins, 17 by knockout, 5 defeats, no draw

Record as a professional: 37 fights, 36 wins, 31 of which by knockout, 1 defeat, no draw.

title

• May 11, 1994: EBU European Bantamweight Champion (1 title defense)
• October 12, 1994: WBC International Superbantamweight Champion (5 title defenses)

• September 30, 1995: WBO Featherweight Champion (15 defenses)
• February 8, 1997: IBF Featherweight Champion (2 title defenses)
• October 22, 1999: WBC Featherweight Champion
• May 18, 2002: IBO Featherweight World Champion

Web links

• Naseem Hamed in the BoxRec database

predecessor	Office	successor
Steve Robinson	Featherweight Boxing Champion ( WBO ) September 30, 1995 - September 30, 2000	vacant István Kovács

predecessor	Office	successor
Tom Johnson	Featherweight Boxing Champion ( IBF ) February 8, 1997 - July 1997	vacant Hector Lizarraga

predecessor	Office	successor
César Soto	Featherweight Boxing Champion ( WBC ) October 22, 1999 - 2000	vacant Guty Espadas Jr

Individual evidence

1. ↑ International Boxing Hall of Fame
2. ↑ Prince Naseem Hamed: Former Boxing Champ Turned Chump "Guarantees" Comeback
3. ↑ Naseem Hamed
4. ↑ BBC: Honors stripped , January 31, 2012, accessed December 16, 2019.

Web links

• Cash-wrangle Hamed gives up title