Comparing Hatton and Hamed!

www.fightnews.com

May 13, 2006

By Richard Fletcher

While Britain's newest hero, Ricky Hatton, prepares to take America by storm, a fighter who found himself in the same position nearly nine years ago will be reflecting on what might have been. Like Hatton, Prince Naseem Hamed topped an HBO bill in the U.S. for the first time in December 1997 but now faces 15 months in jail after being sentenced on Friday for dangerous driving in his home city of Sheffield.

Back then Hamed was 23, four years younger than Hatton, and 28-0 going into his fight with New Yorker Kevin Kelley at Madison Square Garden.The bout was a wild brawl, with both boxers down several times before Hamed's power finally told in the fourth round.

It was America's first live look at Hamed and they got a show. But in the end, showmanship might be all that he's remembered for despite a career that netted Hamed in the region of £30 million but could have delivered so much more.
On the way up, Hamed was described by Harry Mullan, the late former Boxing News editor, as a "once-in-a-generation" talent. But Hamed always seemed more pre-occupied with image and the trappings of success than going down as one of the great fighters.

It was a shame because Hamed had all the raw ingredients: power, skills and a strong fighting instinct.

In his defining fight against the Mexican Marco Antonio Barrera in Las Vegas in April 2001, Hamed flunked, appearing more concerned with superficial things like hairstyle, ring entrance and the luxuries in his hotel room.

In a training camp documentary screened in the UK about a year later, Hamed was seen behaving like a child with too many toys, arrogantly believing that all he had to do to beat Barrera was turn up. He soon found out otherwise as Barrera outsmarted and outpunched him to take a comfortable unanimous decision.

But it was Hamed's reaction to the Barrera defeat that hurt his legacy most. Although he never officially retired, he only fought once afterwards, getting booed out of the ring after a dour points win over the Spaniard Manuel Calvo a year later. Hamed constantly teased the media and public with comeback talk, including a planned return in the U.S. later this year, but it always looked likely to come to nothing.
Legends of the ring - and Hamed, remember, as good as promised he would become one - do not just talk. They learn from defeat and come back stronger, better fighters. Sadly, Hamed did not. Now, at the age of 32 and with a prison sentence in front of him, it is all too late.

The night he fought Kelley, Hamed could not have believed that a pale-skinned teenager on the undercard would be in his shoes almost a decade later. Well, he is and he's taking it deadly seriously.

Hatton is Hamed's polar opposite in terms of attitude and personality, a down-to-earth fighter who feels privileged to be where he is and will do whatever it takes to stay there.

That's why I don't expect Luis Collazo to get a look-in in Boston tonight