Where do you rank Naseem Hamed all-time?

[John Hue]

As far as talent is concerned Hamed was an all time great, he had phenomenal power,very good chin ,was resilient and could bounce back straight away after he got in trouble. But he was a flawed character and did not pay enough attention to his craft and his deffence. His good wins were against good fighters who were just by their sell by date and the best fighter he fought was Barrera but in fairness the Hamed that turned up on fight night was a pathetic deluded idiot of a clown that had become complacent and too reliant on talent and self belief.With discipline and correct training and less show boating Hamed would have been able to beat them all. The main reason being is his power,it was too much and if he landed right that would be it. However the fact that he really stopped fighting after the Barrera loss. IMO down to his ego not the excuse of his hands was very lame. He did not beat enough really good fighters ,quit when beaten and did not make the full use of his talents,therefore I conclude he was not an all time great though undoubtedly he could have been.

[bklynboy]

Same old story with Naz..
Hugely underrated due to his own lack of dedication.. He grabbed the money and ran, and i have to admit, i've never forgiven him for doing so..

He was without doubt, a potentialy ATG FW, and had he remained focused & with the Ingle camp, would have improved his defense and become a legend..
P4P there's not too many fighters who hit as hard as him, Jimmy Wilde, Sandy Saddler, Wilfredo Gomez, Carlos Zarate, come to mind when comparing power..
I'd also suggest it's fair to say he had a very good chin aswell.. Due to a **** defense, he'd often take massive shots and bounce straight back up to KTFO of his opponent..
The likes of Kevin Kelly, Augie Sanchez & Tom Johnson could all bang, & were no mugs when they faced Hamed.. He made absolute clowns of Vasquez, Robinson & Hardy who once again, all had good reputations before they met him..

I personally don't like Hamed, but credit where it's due, other than a dodgy defense and an arrogant attitude, that ultimately ruined a potentialy great career, he was **** hot & without doubt, one of the most exciting fighters of his era.. It's also difficult to name too many FW's who would have dealt with his power, so to see other posters ranking him from 37 downwards is somewhat, a traversty of justice..
Somewhere between 10-20 at FW would be about right in my opinion..
P4P ATG Puncher - between 10-20 again..
P4P ATG fighter - somewhere between 100-200..

Exactly, he had the potential to be a TOP 20 Featherweight. But he quit before we could find out; before he matured as a fighter and as a man.

[bojangles1987]

I don't. He was an exciting fighter who didn't do anything near enough to be an ATG.

[Sugarj]

Mickey and John have said what I think perfectly.

One other point is that his combination punching suffered after winning the title from Robinson. The Robinson fight was a superb display of elusive defense and superb combinations. As his title reign went on the combination work became less and less and he started relying on huge corkscrew uppercuts and lead right hands over the top. He started believing too much in his one punch power. What was more special though was his ability to avoid punches early on in his career

I honestly believe peak Hamed beats peak Barrera, I rate him that highly. But he doesn't belong in the same league in ATG terms.

If he was to have come back and beat Barrera then we could have started talking ATG. It separates the legends from the tallents, the ability to change tactics and come back from a good beating. Ray Leonard came back to beat Duran, Ali to beat Frazier, Pep to beat Saddler, Robinson to beat La Motta. Hamed will kick himself in years to come for not getting back in the ring with Barrera.

[mickey malone]

Mickey and John have said what I think perfectly.

One other point is that his combination punching suffered after winning the title from Robinson. The Robinson fight was a superb display of elusive defense and superb combinations. As his title reign went on the combination work became less and less and he started relying on huge corkscrew uppercuts and lead right hands over the top. He started believing too much in his one punch power. What was more special though was his ability to avoid punches early on in his career

I honestly believe peak Hamed beats peak Barrera, I rate him that highly. But he doesn't belong in the same league in ATG terms.

If he was to have come back and beat Barrera then we could have started talking ATG. It separates the legends from the tallents, the ability to change tactics and come back from a good beating. Ray Leonard came back to beat Duran, Ali to beat Frazier, Pep to beat Saddler, Robinson to beat La Motta. Hamed will kick himself in years to come for not getting back in the ring with Barrera.

Rocket launchers, as he used to call them..

The way he treated Ingle was disgraceful.. He discovered Hamed when he was 7 years old, and turned him into a world beater, and one has to ask, 'For What'?

Yes, Hamed will be a very bitter man in years to come..

[tanibanana]

Top 8-12 All Time Featherweight Great...

[CarlosG815]

He was another fighter that cared more about his record than being a real champion. I remember he beat up on an old Kevin Kelly and that was probably the biggest fight he ever won.

He knew the day would come would he would have to stop running and face guys like Morales and Barrera, who at the time were in their prime and unbeatable, except by each other.

He knew he couldn't go toe to toe against Barrera and when he did he was exposed for the phony that he was.

How can anybody seriously praise this guy or use his name along with the term "all time great?" He had a strong punch and good speed, but no precision to his punches, lousy footing when throwing bombs and probably the worst defense of any fighter that ever held a belt, as brief as it was.

[mickey malone]

He was another fighter that cared more about his record than being a real champion. I remember he beat up on an old Kevin Kelly and that was probably the biggest fight he ever won.

He knew the day would come would he would have to stop running and face guys like Morales and Barrera, who at the time were in their prime and unbeatable, except by each other.

He knew he couldn't go toe to toe against Barrera and when he did he was exposed for the phony that he was.

How can anybody seriously praise this guy or use his name along with the term "all time great?" He had a strong punch and good speed, but no precision to his punches, lousy footing when throwing bombs and probably the worst defense of any fighter that ever held a belt, as brief as it was.

I would'nt say that 5 years 3 belts and 15 straight defenses was brief..

Hamed won the WBO title in 1995 by knocking out Steve Robinson in 8 rounds..
He then went on to record 15 successful defenses (13 KO's) while also picking up the IBF and WBC belts along the way.. All in all he had 17 world title fights, only losing once in 2001 on points to Barrera, who is without doubt an ATG..

Here's some info on who he KO'd

Kevin Kelly 47-1-2
Paul Ingle UNBEATEN
Augie Sanchez 26-1-0
Tom Johnson 44-2-2
Daniel Molina UNBEATEN
Victor Bungu 37-2-0
Daniel Alicea UNBEATEN
Jose Badillo 20-1-0

You can add former world champs Manuel Medina & Wilfredo Vazquez to that list as well..
Only Wayne McCullough, Cesar Soto and of course Barrera lasted the distance, McCullough & Soto (who were both world champs) being soundly beaten..

To the best of my knowledge Hamed fought at least 9 world champs, beating 8 of them, not to mention the abundance of European Champs he left dazed on the canvas..
In my opinion, he was a lot better than you think..

[GameGod]

Having revised my lists and made new ones yesterday, I now rank Hamed as the #57 on my list of the Top 1,000 Featherweights of All-Time, and #1,805 on my list of the Top 100,000 P4P Fighters of All-Time. Yes, I have too much time on my hands (believe it or not, I actually wrote a complicated description and reasoning for each position, looking at skills and attributes as well as achievements, records and resume, for each fighter I considered; I considered a little over 500,000, of which 100,000 made my big list).

[GJC]

..

He was without doubt, a potentialy ATG FW, and had he remained focused & with the Ingle camp, would have improved his defense and become a legend..
I'd also suggest it's fair to say he had a very good chin aswell.. Due to a **** defense, he'd often take massive shots and bounce straight back up to KTFO of his opponent..

Amazing to think he came out of the same gym as Herol Graham who you couldn't hit with a handful of rice.