By Terence Dooley
Naseem Hamed was present at the MEN arena on Saturday night to watch Amir Khan out-point Andreas Kotelnik for the WBA light-welterweight title. Naseem, who reigned supreme at featherweight until coming into contact with Marco Antonio Barrera, lauded Khan for his fast hands, before telling the Daily Mirror that Amir will never be 'the new Naz'.
“Amir's a great fighter and he's got mad hand speed,” claims Naz. “He's got crazy hand speed, hand speed not a lot of fighters have got, but can I see a bit of me in him? I don't know. I was super great. I was special. Amir Khan is Amir Khan. He's a great fighter, he's got great attributes. But Prince Naseem brought something completely different to any other fighter in the whole world."
Naz's unique blend of excitement will be hard for Amir to replicate. Khan, for all his talent, lacks a decent punch. What he does have, though, is courage, and the ability to bounce back from defeat, this separates him from Naz, who acknowledged that Amir has responded well to the Bredis Prescott loss.
“What makes Amir great is that he's come back from a knockout to do this. Not many fighters can come back from a knockout like that and that was a bad knockout," stressed Naz. “But now look, the man came back, he beat Marco Antonio Barrera. He beat the only guy who beat Prince Naseem - that alone is fantastic - and now he is world champion. The country has a new world champion and one to be proud of. He's the real deal and his name's not Evander Holyfield!”
However, despite all of this praise Naseem is convinced that the last thing the UK needs is a Khan-Hatton showdown. “I don't really know if Amir needs that to be honest,” he claimed. “He's got a legacy of his own to forge and maybe his next thought will be to move up a weight and win more world titles. I don't see much in that fight, you know. Ricky's had a fantastic career, doing what he's done.”
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