Not sure if this has already been posted but found this cracking breakdown of the Hamed v Barrera fight this morning. The one that effectively ended his career.
Not sure if this has already been posted but found this cracking breakdown of the Hamed v Barrera fight this morning. The one that effectively ended his career.
Don't bully fat kids - they've got enough on their plate
That was a good video, it was very informative, incisive round by round commentary and only 10 minutes long.
I did not know that Naz earned $8million from the fight, I did know he was struggling making weight but for a career high payday he should have done better. I also did not know that Naz was due to fight Barrera before Junior Jones beat him and was there to watch the first fight.
Hamed was slipping and had lost his mentor and trainer Ingle when he fought MAB. Manny Steward was really a consultant who was making huge money from top fighters at the time. He was not happy with Naz conditioning and there was that documentary where he paid thousands for his barber to fly in and appeared to not have his mind on the contest.
MAB boxed an intelligent, simple and brilliant fight as a true legend of the sport would do. He held a higher guard than usual and was careful not to leave himself open for the frightening power that Naz always had. Barrera would not fall or back down from all the psychological games that Naz was playing.
Naz acted a dick throughout the bout and never took the rematch. He was comprehensively beaten.
Do not let success go to your head and do not let failure get to your heart.
I completely agree with Master. Naz was possibly the most naturally gifted British fighter I have ever seen. Fantastic reflexes, slippery Wincobank style and crushing power.
He was definitely believing his own press at that point in his career, and was shirking his training. I remember the thing about the barber and saying to my friends that Barrera would beat him.
With a style like his, if his timing is off then nothing works. He had also never truly ingrained the basics so he didn’t have a solid reliable muscle-memory technique to fall back on when things went wrong.
He took his beating bravely, but was schooled by an all time great. He was dismantled, made to look silly and ultimately bullied by an all time great.
I think Barrera broke his heart as he had one more bad fight and then called it a day.
If God wanted us to be vegetarians, why are animals made of meat ?
For the record I picked barrera to win by late stoppage.
Is on the old Naz forum if you don't believe me.....
Last edited by Mark TKO; 01-15-2022 at 08:43 AM.
Don't bully fat kids - they've got enough on their plate
naseem was exciting but overrated
It is the mark of an educated mind to be able to entertain a thought without accepting it.
That was a nice little piece. Best description of Barrera pre and during the fight with "tactical endurance". I've always thought Hamed was genuinely convinced he was just going to be dealing with a walking stereotype in Barrera as a face first attacker looking for a brawl. Barrera could always 'box' it's not like it happened overnight. He just put the fully matured package all in that night and did a great job at getting into Hameds head with all the pre fight 'going to war' stuff. Hamed tried everything in the book from cooling him down with entry delay to tackles taunts and tantrums but Barrera focus was staring right thru him. Hamed was one of the most reflex savvy and explosive fighters of an era but his two left feet and high head swaying in the wind were there pretty early. A few guys caught and rocked him before being hammered under but Marco went to town on it. I forgot how quick Hamed was all wrapped up as far as being at the top. But speaks to his massive ability to grab and keep fans and detractors alike. Obnoxious ego turned up to 10 and wrestling gimmicks that would make Macho Man Savage blush but always exciting (for the most part ).
This was the first fight where you could see MAB’s transformation and elevation to the next level of fighter. He was always a great fighter, but he was more of a seek and destroy, walk you down, JCC type fighter earlier in his career. The first HBO after dark fight I watched was his war with Kennedy McKinney, another really good fighter who matched up well to provide a great kickoff to the show/series.
I think MAB fell in love with that style and thought everyone would wilt against like McKinney had- this is especially true for Junior Jones, who had wilted against John Michael Johnson and had shown vulnerabilities against Darryl Pickney. Junior had MAB’s number though, and styles make fights and something about Jones’s right had a different effect on MAB and Barrera lost two in a row.
Credit to MAB for going back to the drawing board and modifying his style to be a perfect blend of tactical brilliance combined with bursts of pressure and toughness. His jab became such an imposing/daunting weapon that he could completely control the fight with the jab alone- this was the first fight where you started to see that and he only improved until he ran into a young Manny Pacquiaou.
Hamed was a great fighter but he had already started to decline by the Barrera fight- he was better when he was more of a British star/fighter and had suffered from the trappings of success. Or his training suffered. Either way- I don’t feel his heart was in it at this point and he never got back to the top again.
Last edited by mikeeod; 01-16-2022 at 01:06 PM.
The Marco Antonio Barrera vs Naseem Hamed fight is one of MY FAVORITE FIGHTS OF ALL TIME.
Junior Jones also lost an epic battle with Paul Ingle at MSG getting stopped in the 11th round. It was on the under card Lennox Lewis v Grant and was a unification for IBF/IBO title. That was Ingle's best performance because he came back from being knocked down in round 9.
Do not let success go to your head and do not let failure get to your heart.
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