Naseem Hamed
Known for his flashy style, energetic and colorful ring entrances, speed, power punch, unorthodox boxing style, prodigious ego, taunting of opponents and praises of Allah once his fights are over, Naseem Hamed is a British boxer of Yemeni ancestry born on February 12, 1974 in Sheffield, Yorkshire. Although he did not officially retire, most Boxing cognoscenti consider Hamed's career to be behind him.
Nicknamed The Prince, Hamed was a boxing prodigy since his early days. He himself confesses that he didn't care much for school because he knew he'd someday become a world champion. Known throughout the first half of his career for his almost inhuman ability to land extremely hurtful blows and dodge the fastest punches - and, conversely, in the latter half of his career, for his tendancy to be caught by some very obvious ones too - one account claims that his first manager, Brendan Ingle, initially saw a pre-teen Hamed through the lattice mesh of a schoolyard fence, fighting off a gang of older boys who all seemed unable to land a blow on the fast-moving young boy. At the age of 12 he was a top amateur boxer in England and Europe, and at 18 he signed his first contract as a pro.
Hamed rose fast through the ranks, and in 1995 he won his first world title, knocking out Wales's defending WBO world Featherweight champion Steve Robinson in 8 rounds in front of Robinson's home crowd in Cardiff. His first defense came against Austria based Nigerian, Said Lawal, taken out in only 45 seconds. This was the fastest world title fight ever held in Scotland.
Hamed kept defending his title and then he met Puerto Rican Daniel Alicea. The fight was televised to the United States by Showtime and Hamed was dropped in round one, but he rose to win by a knockout in round 2.
Next was IBF world champion Tom Johnson who was defeated in 8 rounds in a unification bout, once again in London. Johnson was prevented further punishment by the referee, who stopped the fight.
1997 came by and he flew to the United States to fight there for the first time. His grand arrival on the British Airways Concorde was covered by multiple media outlets. There, he and former WBC Featherweight champion of the world Kevin Kelley fought Ring Magazine's fight of the year at the Madison Square Garden in New York. Despite being dropped three times himself, Hamed put Kelley down for a third and final time to win by a fourth round knockout. This was his first of many fights on HBO.
1998 came, and Hamed had wins over former 3 time WBA world champion Wilfredo Vazquez (KO in 7), Former WBC Bantamweight world champion Wayne McCollough (W 12), and WBC world Featherweight champion Cesar Soto, (W 12) to add the world Featherweight championship to his resume.
In 2001, to the shock of the great majority of the Boxing community, Hamed suffered his first loss, being beaten comprehensively by the brilliant Mexican Marco Antonio Barrera to lose the WBO's version of the Featherweight title. In a reversal of usual policy, Hamed had notably and loudly proclaimed his allegiance in front of the world to his deity, Allah, just before the fight began, in stark contrast both with his previous practice of quietly thanking his deity after the fact, and to Barrera humbly crossing himself. However, certain pundits have speculated that this radical change of policy may have been reactionary to Barrera's observance, prior to the clash, that "Allah won't be in the ring with him in our fight".
He had one comeback fight in 2002 against the European Featherweight champion Manuel Calvo of Spain, and annexed the IBO title with a 12 round unanimous decision, despite a knockdown suffered in round seven. Despite, or in some cases because of Hamed's restyling of himself as 'The Fresh Prince', a moniker hinting tantalisingly at a return to the combination punching, fleet footwork and inaccessibility to inbound punches that typified his pre-Kevin Kelley fights, many of his fans as well as some boxing magazines were left unimpressed by his performance, indeed loudly expressing discontent at the continued deterioration of his skills, many seats around the ring becoming vacant as the latter rounds whiled by.
Hamed's spectacular ring entrances have included being deposited in the middle of the ring by an elevator , which was set up specially for the event near the roof of the Manchester arena, being carried into the ring on a king's throne, walking into the ring on a fashion runway style walk way, walking into the ring with a Halloween mask for his fight with McCollough (fought on Halloween night of 1998), and many others.
Hamed's behavior is somewhat strange outside the ring too. He is known for stopping to sign autographs for fans, but he also had an altercation at Heathrow Airport with former world champ Chris Eubank, showing off his belts and reminding Eubank that Eubank was not a champion anymore.
He was managed by his brother, Raith Hamed.
