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Naseem Hamed is 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 United
Kingdom|British boxing|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 abilities to land extremely hurtful blows,
to dodge the fastest punches - and, conversely, in
the latter half of his career, for his tendency 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's elusive, 'hands-down' style was
developed at Brendan Ingle's famous gym in
Wincobank, Sheffield. However, it was also
strongly influenced by the gym's star fighter in
the mid-1980s, Herol 'Bomber' Graham.

Hamed rose swiftly through the ranks and in
(un)popularity, his excitingly unorthodox style
winning a large fan base, and his innate arrogance
generating a large group of 'anti-fans'.  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, knocked 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.  While in his
corner, Hamed was advised to temporarily abandon
his his 'hands-down' stance in favor of a
conventional defense.  Upon returning to the
fight, he won by a knockout in round 2.

The next opponent was International Boxing
Federation|IBF world champion Tom Johnson
(boxing)|Tom Johnson who was defeated in 8 rounds
in a unification bout, once again in London. 
Johnson was saved further punishment by the
referee, who stopped the fight. 

In 1997 he flew to the United States to fight
there for the first time. His ceremonious arrival
on the British Airways Concorde was covered by
multiple mass media|media outlets. There, he and
former World Boxing Council|WBC Featherweight
champion of the world Kevin Kelley fought Ring
Magazine's fight of the year at the Madison Square
Garden in New York. This fight marks something of
a watershed in Hamed's career, as he was forced,
for the first time, to abandon his 'hands-down'
style of fighting throughout the entire course of
the battle, given the caliber of Kelley. In
addition, many of the speed and stamina-related
hallmarks of his brilliance, ie the prevalence of
combination punching, ability to dodge blows etc,
seemed to have degraded somewhat; debate still
rages as to whether this was the result of
increasing age, or of increasing quality of
opponent, or both. Nonetheless, 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 Home Box Office|HBO.

In 1998 Hamed enjoyed victories over former 3 time
World Boxing Association|WBA world champion
Wilfredo Vazquez (KO in 7), Former WBC
Bantamweight world champion Wayne McCollough (W
12), and in 1999 the WBC world Featherweight
champion Cesar Soto, (W 12) to add the world
Featherweight championship to his resume. 

In the eyes of hardened supporters and most
observers, both despite and because of blatant
flaws in his style of fighting, Hamed by this time
had earned an almost mythical status of
invulnerability. As one Boxing reviewer wrote, "He
does everything wrong except lose".  It seemed by
this point that, regardless of the opponent
presented, as long as that challenger weighed
within 10Ibs, he would simply and inevitably lose;
any measure of success against Hamed only
decreased the opponents final standing, being all
the more badly bruised and marked for lasting 12
rounds. Nor did it seem to help if you succeeded
in knocking Hamed down; all of the three men who
had succeeded in punching him to the canvas,
namely Alicea, Kelley, and Sanchez had ultimately
been knocked out in increasingly brutal fashion
over the years, culminating finally with the
carrying away of Sanchez on a stretcher in 2000.

In the eyes of a few Boxing cognoscenti, however,
Hamed's downfall was only a matter of time.  They
pointed to the increasing instances of opponents
knocking him down and lasting 12 rounds; they
attributed this both to Hamed's own declining
qualities, i.e. dulling reflexes, worsening
defense etc, and also to the increasing quality of
opponents presented before him.  

It was in 2001 therefore, to the shock of the
great majority of the Boxing community, and to the
gratification of a smaller minority of experts and
'anti-fans', that Hamed suffered his first loss,
being beaten comprehensively by Marco Antonio
Barrera, a champion of long standing, to lose the
WBO's version of the Featherweight title.  

He fought a single return match 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 tantalizingly 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 London Heathrow Airport|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 Frank Warren (promoter)|Frank
Warren but then his brother Riath Hamed took over
towards the end of Hamed's career. 


* http://www.princenaseem.com/ Hamed's official
site
* http://www.boxrec.com/record004462.html Career
Record