Quote Originally Posted by Violent Demise View Post

That's the thing with Hamed. It involves way to many "if's" And most of those "if's" are unrealistic. I don't deny Hamed's popularity. And while he too was an arrogant prick to many he's still more likable than Mayweather. And if he was to remain undefeated for 22 years, you are correct that he would be bigger than Mayweather currently is. Problem is Hamed didn't have a prayer of remaining undefeated against the elite fighters around him
For sure, obviously that is an impossible hypothetical because Hamed didn't have the skill to beat Barrera and IMO would have had his ass handed to him by Morales, Pac and PBF of that time.

In the end he was much more interesting than Mayweather, was more press-friendly and had a much more fan friendly style than Mayweather.

Trouble was, he wasn't half the fighter Mayweather was.

I remember after one of Floyd's fights at the time, while Larry Merchant was doing the post fight interview with him Floyd said that he wanted to set up a fight with Naseem. Larry got serious, looked him in the eye and said "Floyd, Naseem's not going to fight you". Didn't have the substance to hang with the big boys.