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can't say i totally agree but a thought-provoking article. thoughts?
Recently one of the major boxing publications had a special feature on the twenty greatest fighters in British history and surprisingly they ranked Naseem Hamed at number eleven right behind John Conteh. Although it is difficult to compare fighters of this era to previous eras, I firmly believe that Naseem Hamed deserves to be ranked higher.
First off, Naseem was a legitimate world champion in one of the eight traditional weight classes. He beat Steve Robinson for the WBO title in 1995, Tom Johnson for the IBF title in 97, the WBA Champion, Wilfredo Vasquez in 98, and finally Cesar Soto, the WBC champ in 99. I don’t care if Naseem relinquished those titles because in the eyes of purists, championships can only be won or lost in the ring. And the Prince didn’t lose his status as champion until 2001, nearly five and half years after he laid partial claim to the title with his victory over Robinson .
It’s kind of like the Middleweight division today. All the titles are split, but it doesn’t matter because we know Bernard Hopkins unified the title and then lost it to Jermain Taylor who hasn’t lost since. As a result boxing aficionados only recognize Taylor as the true Middleweight champion. The same thing goes for the Prince’s title reign at Featherweight. From the time he knocked out Tom Boom Boom Johnson, who was making his 13th defense of the title in 1997, until he lost to Barrera in 2001, the Prince was the best featherweight in the world. You might be able to make a case for Luisito Espinosa, who I believe in his prime would have had a good chance of beating Manny Pacquiao at 126, but the lengthy Filipino lost the title to Cesar Soto in 99 and began showing signs of deterioration as early as 98 when he struggled against Ranchero Ramirez.
Thus you have to put the Prince at the top and concur that from 97 until 2001 he should be regarded as having been the best featherweight in the world.
To this day, people claim, “the Prince was a fraud, he was exposed by Barrera, I knew he wasn’t that good.” Personally I don’t like the Prince. His ego is way too big, he’s not a decent human being and that’s why he was incarcerated. He actually hit somebody while he was driving recklessly and instead of stopping the car to help the person he hit, he fled away thinking that he could run away from the problem even though his license plate had his name on it! Still I’m not going to let my perception of him as a person, distort my perception of him as a prize fighter.
The truth is Naseem Hamed was probably one of the most gifted Englishmen to ever lace up a pair of gloves. Even though he was often off balance during fights and moved with the awkwardness of a limbless insect, he had phenomenal punching power and a pretty well developed sense of spatial awareness that some might actually call a sixth sense since he could actually sense what his opponent was doing or where his opponents’ punches were coming from. It was kind of like how a good point guard or a gifted quarterback can sense where all the players are with out actually looking at them.
Even though the Prince wasn’t as adept as lets say, Wilfredo Benitez, at anticipating punches, his chin was still an elusive target.
Impressive reflexes and hand-eye coordination weren’t Naseem’s only gifts. The one thing that separated the Prince from everybody else was his legitimate one punch knock out power. The Prince hit extremely hard and was one of those special guys that just didn’t knock out the typical stiff, but who regularly knocked out world class opponents. He was the first to stop Steve Robinson, Tom "Boom Boom" Johnson, and Vayani Bungu. Even Marco Antonio Barrera thinks that Naseem was a tremendous puncher, “They both hit real hard, but punch for punch I’d have to say the Prince hits a little harder than Pacquiao.”
Also look at Naseem’s numbers and longevity. He accumulated over sixteen title fight victories and was never stopped in his career. And his sole defeat is to a man who is widely regarded as one of the three or four greatest fighters in Mexican history.
Now look at Ricky Hatton. I hate dogging on fighters, especially a fighter like Ricky who has cojones that could fill a dump truck, but you can’t rank Hatton ahead of the Prince and you will never be able to do it. Hatton fought an assortment of Europeans on the lighter side of the color spectrum and some older African-American fighters. Vince Philips and Freddie Pendleton were so over the hill when Ricky beat them that they were under it. Hatton did beat an excellent champ in Kostya Tszyu, but the Russian-Aussie was ripe for the taking and Hatton had the perfect style to do it.
Hatton is a young dynamo in the mold of Henry Armstrong and older fighters just can’t keep up with that type of frantic pace. Hatton’s youth beat Tszyu, not his skills. His supposed title fight unification with Carlos Maussa was a terrible mismatch. He did what Rid**** Bowe did when Big Daddy fought Jesse Furgeson in that the Manchester native jumped at the chance to fight someone that earned his ranking by upsetting a superior fighter who had a bad day at the office. I do give Ricky credit for taking on Luis Collazo and thought he won the fight, but feel as though Hatton gets a lot more attention than he deserves.
The win over Kostya Tszyu was a historic victory and definitely counts for something, but I just don’t think Ricky’s talent will allow him to match Prince Naseem’s accomplishments or longevity. As of right now Ricky is 3-0 in title fights and barely surived his first visit to the United States as champion.
Instead of lavishing all this praise on Hatton for winning one big fight, maybe the boxing public should throw some of it to Prince Naseem Hamed, the prize fighter, not the human being.
Recently one of the major boxing publications had a special feature on the twenty greatest fighters in British history and surprisingly they ranked Naseem Hamed at number eleven right behind John Conteh. Although it is difficult to compare fighters of this era to previous eras, I firmly believe that Naseem Hamed deserves to be ranked higher.
First off, Naseem was a legitimate world champion in one of the eight traditional weight classes. He beat Steve Robinson for the WBO title in 1995, Tom Johnson for the IBF title in 97, the WBA Champion, Wilfredo Vasquez in 98, and finally Cesar Soto, the WBC champ in 99. I don’t care if Naseem relinquished those titles because in the eyes of purists, championships can only be won or lost in the ring. And the Prince didn’t lose his status as champion until 2001, nearly five and half years after he laid partial claim to the title with his victory over Robinson .
It’s kind of like the Middleweight division today. All the titles are split, but it doesn’t matter because we know Bernard Hopkins unified the title and then lost it to Jermain Taylor who hasn’t lost since. As a result boxing aficionados only recognize Taylor as the true Middleweight champion. The same thing goes for the Prince’s title reign at Featherweight. From the time he knocked out Tom Boom Boom Johnson, who was making his 13th defense of the title in 1997, until he lost to Barrera in 2001, the Prince was the best featherweight in the world. You might be able to make a case for Luisito Espinosa, who I believe in his prime would have had a good chance of beating Manny Pacquiao at 126, but the lengthy Filipino lost the title to Cesar Soto in 99 and began showing signs of deterioration as early as 98 when he struggled against Ranchero Ramirez.
Thus you have to put the Prince at the top and concur that from 97 until 2001 he should be regarded as having been the best featherweight in the world.
To this day, people claim, “the Prince was a fraud, he was exposed by Barrera, I knew he wasn’t that good.” Personally I don’t like the Prince. His ego is way too big, he’s not a decent human being and that’s why he was incarcerated. He actually hit somebody while he was driving recklessly and instead of stopping the car to help the person he hit, he fled away thinking that he could run away from the problem even though his license plate had his name on it! Still I’m not going to let my perception of him as a person, distort my perception of him as a prize fighter.
The truth is Naseem Hamed was probably one of the most gifted Englishmen to ever lace up a pair of gloves. Even though he was often off balance during fights and moved with the awkwardness of a limbless insect, he had phenomenal punching power and a pretty well developed sense of spatial awareness that some might actually call a sixth sense since he could actually sense what his opponent was doing or where his opponents’ punches were coming from. It was kind of like how a good point guard or a gifted quarterback can sense where all the players are with out actually looking at them.
Even though the Prince wasn’t as adept as lets say, Wilfredo Benitez, at anticipating punches, his chin was still an elusive target.
Impressive reflexes and hand-eye coordination weren’t Naseem’s only gifts. The one thing that separated the Prince from everybody else was his legitimate one punch knock out power. The Prince hit extremely hard and was one of those special guys that just didn’t knock out the typical stiff, but who regularly knocked out world class opponents. He was the first to stop Steve Robinson, Tom "Boom Boom" Johnson, and Vayani Bungu. Even Marco Antonio Barrera thinks that Naseem was a tremendous puncher, “They both hit real hard, but punch for punch I’d have to say the Prince hits a little harder than Pacquiao.”
Also look at Naseem’s numbers and longevity. He accumulated over sixteen title fight victories and was never stopped in his career. And his sole defeat is to a man who is widely regarded as one of the three or four greatest fighters in Mexican history.
Now look at Ricky Hatton. I hate dogging on fighters, especially a fighter like Ricky who has cojones that could fill a dump truck, but you can’t rank Hatton ahead of the Prince and you will never be able to do it. Hatton fought an assortment of Europeans on the lighter side of the color spectrum and some older African-American fighters. Vince Philips and Freddie Pendleton were so over the hill when Ricky beat them that they were under it. Hatton did beat an excellent champ in Kostya Tszyu, but the Russian-Aussie was ripe for the taking and Hatton had the perfect style to do it.
Hatton is a young dynamo in the mold of Henry Armstrong and older fighters just can’t keep up with that type of frantic pace. Hatton’s youth beat Tszyu, not his skills. His supposed title fight unification with Carlos Maussa was a terrible mismatch. He did what Rid**** Bowe did when Big Daddy fought Jesse Furgeson in that the Manchester native jumped at the chance to fight someone that earned his ranking by upsetting a superior fighter who had a bad day at the office. I do give Ricky credit for taking on Luis Collazo and thought he won the fight, but feel as though Hatton gets a lot more attention than he deserves.
The win over Kostya Tszyu was a historic victory and definitely counts for something, but I just don’t think Ricky’s talent will allow him to match Prince Naseem’s accomplishments or longevity. As of right now Ricky is 3-0 in title fights and barely surived his first visit to the United States as champion.
Instead of lavishing all this praise on Hatton for winning one big fight, maybe the boxing public should throw some of it to Prince Naseem Hamed, the prize fighter, not the human being.