He was far more talented than he'll be remembered for. I followed his professional career from the beginning and was extremely impressed with his ability to avoid punches, the angles he used, his hand/footspeed and later on his power.
The problem was that after winning his first world title from Steve Robinson he seemed on a steady decline. He had barely lost a round up to that point......but then the rumours started about him training at perculiar hours, neglecting roadwork, problems with his trainer Brendan Ingle.
He started relying on single punch 'rocket launchers' rather than his combinations and his once elusive style became far more exploited by his foes. Dropped by Alicea, hurt badly by Medina, dropped by Tom Johnson, dropped several times by Kevin Kelly. Hamed became more of a banger than a boxer. He couldn't be saved by Manny Steward after ditching Ingle either who was humiliated by having to to corner work on odd rounds, switching between Oscar Swarez!?
There were great performances though; Hardy, Vasquez, Cabrerra, Bungu and Badillo jump to mind. But the loss to Barerra as well as the manner of the loss seemed to really hurt him. For many he'll be judged by that performance, when honestly I feel that the Hamed of 1995 would have probably beaten Barerra.
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