With Prince Naseem Hamed back in the headlines with the release this week of the new movie "Giant," starring Pierce Brosnan and Amir-El Masry as trainer Brendan Ingle and Hamed, respectively, the career of the Hall of Fame fighter has been back in the headlines.
Much of the focus of the film is around the implosion of the relationship between the pair, but there was a lot more to both than that. Ingle produced many champions, at domestic, European and world level, while Naz lit up rings in the UK and the US with his showmanship and destructive punching.
Of course, there are fights that aren’t mentioned, like against Steve Robinson, Cesar Soto, Jose Badillo, Wilfredo Vazquez, Billy Hardy and Wayne McCullough but here, BoxingScene takes a look at five of the best performances of Hamed’s 36-1 (31 KOs) career.
5. Paul Ingle, TKO11 (MEN Arena, Manchester, UK, April 10, 1999)
“The Yorkshire Hunter” could really fight. He was a volume puncher with an unreal engine, enormously disciplined and who often wore his trademark camouflage shorts to the ring. He was an unbeaten 21-0 when he boxed Naz and was stopped in the 11th round in a challenge for Hamed’s WBO featherweight crown. Ingle was down in the first, sixth and the decisive 11th but Ingle had his moments, bloodying Hamed’s nose in the ninth and seemingly hurting him in the 10th of an HBO main event. But a short left hand from Naz scrambled Ingle’s senses and that was that. “It was a very very good fight, I enjoyed it,” said the Sheffield man.
Three fights later, and having won the IBF title and defeated both Manuel Medina and Junior Jones (in Madison Square Garden, no less), Ingle was left with terrible brain injuries from a fight against Mbuelelo Botile and could not box again.
4. Vincenzo Belcastro, UD12 (Ponds Forge, Sheffield, UK, May 11, 1994)
On a bill topped by the WBO middleweight title fight between Irishman Steve Collins and the unheralded Chris Pyatt, Naz made the step up to claim the European title at bantamweight. Twitchy, arrogant, brash and heavy-handed, Hamed went through his full repertoire. Italy’s Belcastro could do little but demonstrate how tough he was to go the distance, climbing off the canvas in the first and the 11th rounds. Hamed won by 120-107, 120-109 and 119-110.
“At this stage of the game,” said three-weight world champion Duke McKenzie afterwards, “He’s pretty exciting.”
3. Augie Sanchez, TKO4 (Foxwoods Resort, Mashantucket, Connecticut, August 19, 2000)
Although Sanchez had suffered an early career defeat, he was in form and feared heading into his fight with Hamed. He was 9-0 (9 KOs) in his previous nine fights and they included the scalps of veterans Jorge Paez and Daniel Jimenez. But Hamed, making the 15th defense of his WBO featherweight belt, won a shootout and ultimately, in the fourth, left Sanchez down and out for several minutes.
“You know I bring drama and excitement,” Naz told Larry Merchant in his post-fight interview and Ring magazine headlined their story of the fight ‘Hamed homes in on all-time greatness – but Augie Sanchez is no Salvador Sanchez.’
2. Tom Johnson, TKO8 (London Arena, Millwall, London, UK, February 8, 1997)
Hamed added the IBF title to his WBO belt with an eighth-round stoppage of the veteran American. The Detroit star came over threatening to take Hamed’s undefeated record but was floored and stopped in a one-sided rout.
Johnson was 44-2-2 and, as the end approached, former world cruiserweight champion Glenn McCrory, on commentary of Sky Sports, said: “It’s very difficult for his opponent to get out of the way, because he brings his punches in from all sorts of angles. It’s difficult when a fighter has got everything there. When he’s hurt, he doesn’t know where they’re coming from.”
Johnson was under-fire and ultimately succumbed to a sickening right uppercut.
“That could be the start of the legend,” said McCrory, as Hamed delivered his 13th straight knockout.
Naz, not yet 23, was already being reined in by trainer Brendan Ingle. “Naz did a job on him,” said the coach. “But we’re going to go back to the gym and work on his technique as we did before. If he does that, then he’ll be amazing… There’s something special about him.”
1. Kevin Kelley, TKO4 (Madison Square Garden, New York, December 19, 1997)
What a way to deliver on a promise of excitement. Naz, from having his image splashed across cabs in New York and billboards in Times Square, made and entrance to remember and had an unforgettable fight with brash New Yorker Kelley. Their fight saw seven knockdowns, six counts, and a crushing finale courtesy of a crushing left hand. Bob Mee, Boxing News’ veteran hack was excited by the fight but had hoped for more skill from both men.
“It may seem a daft assertion to those who loved the excitement of what they saw,” Mee wrote. “But Hamed fought badly. He won, yet he did almost everything wrong.”
That was arguably fair, but history doesn’t remember it that. This was Naz, flaws, flamboyance and all on the biggest stage.
“He’s for real,” shouted George Foreman, on comms for HBO. Larry Merchant was even more effusive.
“What we just saw was the Hagler-Hearns of featherweight fighting. We have never seen a fight like this in the featherweight division on this level."
