Naseem Hamed: Why did the ‘Prince’ Retire?
March 11th, 2009
By Matthew Thomas Potter: For the first time in a decade long career, Naseem Hamed left the ring to a mixture of muted boos and polite applause. A short time later, one of Britain’s greatest ever boxers, at the age of 28, would announce his retirement. Hamed, looking out of shape after a long period of inactivity, had just won a wide points decision victory over an unheralded Spaniard, Manuel Calvo, for the lightly regarded IBO Featherweight title.
There has always been an aura of confusion surrounding Hamed’s retirement, which came not much more than a year after his career defining loss to Mexican legend; Marco Antonio Barrera. The fight with Barrera has become a point of reference for every critic and conspiracy theorist. The somewhat lazy and obvious assumption being; that Hamed was well beaten and exposed at the highest levels of the sport, and thus retired to avoid further embarrassment.
On the surface this seems like a credible reason, and, almost certainly, the loss to Barrera was one of the fundamental reasons why Hamed did retire, right in the middle of his physical prime. However, there were many other issues that contributed to Hamed’s retirement; it was a sporting death by a thousand cuts….
At the tender age of twenty, Hamed fought for his first prestigious accolade; the European Bantamweight title. The young Hamed won a wide points decision over the seasoned and durable Italian, Vincenzo Belcastro, who Hamed knocked down in the 1st and 11th rounds. That same year, in 1994, Hamed knocked out Freddy Cruz to capture the WBC International Super-Bantamweight title; which Hamed successfully defended six times, each time knocking out his opponent inside four rounds.
Then, in 1995, the call came for Hamed’s first shot at a world title. Taken on short notice, and moving up in weight, Hamed defeated Steve Robinson to win the WBO Featherweight title, and in doing so he became the youngest ever British World Champion, at the age of just twenty one. Hamed would go on to defend his WBO title successfully on fifteen occasions, before losing it for reasons outside of the boxing ring.
From 1995 to 2001, Hamed became the dominant force in the featherweight division, and a sporting and cultural phenomenon in his British homeland and further afield. During his heyday, Hamed met with, and was decorated by, Royalty from two sovereign nations. He had musical collaborations with The Ministry of Sound; he did commercials for Pizza Hut and Audi. He had a range of merchandise; posters, clothes, videos, statues and even his own Playstation game.
Inside the ring Hamed was equally sensational. He defeated no less than nine current, former or future world title holders. In 1997, he unified the WBO and IBF titles; with an 8th round TKO win over Tom Johnson. The American had successfully defended his title eleven times prior to the fight with the Prince. The following year, Hamed defeated the ageing three-weight world champion; Wilfredo Vasquez via 8th round TKO. Vasquez had been the current WBA Featherweight champion, but fearing unification with WBO, the WBA stripped Vasquez of his title. Two years later Hamed unified the WBO and WBC titles with a dull point’s decision victory over Cesar Soto in Detroit, USA.
Hamed’s single best victory perhaps came against Vuyani Bungu on the 11th of March, 2000, in London, England. Bungu had defeated Kennedy McKinney in 1994 to win the IBF Super-Bantamweight title. Bungu hadn’t lost a fight for over eight years, and had successfully defended his IBF world title on fourteen prior occasions. Hamed entered the arena on a magic carpet that hovered over the audience below before coming back down to earth; he then stepped off the carpet and continued his ring walk with hip-hip impresario P.Diddy by his side. Bungu fought bravely, but Hamed defeated him via TKO in the 4th round.
There was another thrilling fight and KO victory to come, against the big punching, but seriously outgunned, Augie Sanchez in Connecticut that same year. But the inevitable march towards Barrera and retirement had seemingly begun….
In fact, the seeds of Hamed’s discontent had been sown as early as 1998. Hamed’s gloomy demeanour in the build up to the fight with Vasquez wasn’t in keeping with flamboyant stars outgoing personality. After the fight, Hamed split from promoter Frank Warren, and it soon become clear that Hamed was also having problems with his long time trainer, friend and mentor; Brendan Ingle. Things came to head with Ingle, surrounding and during the October 1998 fight with durable Irishman, and future world title holder, Wayne McCullough.
During the entertaining fight, Hamed refused to make eye contact with Ingle between rounds, Ingle dished out advice, but Hamed sat stony faced and looking entirely indifferent to that advice. At the start of the rest period between rounds 11 and 12, Hamed refused to sit down and seemed to unceremoniously push Ingle away.
Later, Hamed would go on record to say, that he felt Ingle desperately wanted him to lose against McCullough. Perhaps Hamed said this, because Ingle himself was on record as saying that since Hamed’s win over Johnson, the money, fame and praise Hamed had received, had made the highly egotistical fighter difficult to train. Immediately after the fight with McCullough, Hamed split from Ingle.
The history of the 2001 fight between ‘Prince’ Naseem Hamed and Marco Antonio Barrera has been re-written. A dominant performance by Barrera, in a competitive fight that two judges scored 115-112, has been rewritten as schooling; an embarrassing and uncompetitive boxing lesson for Hamed. The historical reality of that fight is somewhat different to its current perception.
Without questioning an honest and open Naseem Hamed it is hard to say, with any degree of certainty, why the man who dominated the featherweight division for half of a decade, retired at the inopportune moment which he did. However, there are clearly a number of contributory reasons:
Hamed was becoming more deeply and openly religious as his career progressed, he often surrounded himself with religious symbolism, and consigned himself to promoting his Islamic faith; a faith that was under scrutiny after the September 11th attacks. It was not an easy time to be a Muslim in America; it was more difficult still for a high profile sports star, known for flaunting that faith at every given opportunity. Perhaps Hamed felt it was the correct decision to withdraw from the limelight, as his religious convictions became increasingly passionate, studious and all consuming.
Hamed’s split from long time mentors, like Frank Warren, and more significantly, trainer Brendan Ingle must have been traumatic affairs that may have left Hamed deeply disillusioned. Not to mention feeling somewhat abandoned and isolated.
Hamed’s loss to Barrera; was not just a significant sporting defeat, but also a difficult commercial conundrum. HBO seemed to lose faith; contract negotiations become protracted and difficult and then stalled and broke down all together. Adidas ended their long term and deeply lucrative sponsorship of Hamed after the defeat.
A total of 21 years, 10 years of which as a professional, living the boxing life; training hard, eating right, making and selling fights. Perhaps this had worn Hamed’ infectious enthusiasm down to the bone; see the Vasquez fight press conference where Hamed seems deeply disinterested in proceedings.
Fame; Hamed was internationally famous, with news of his fights being broadcast around the world. In his heyday, Hamed got more than ten million viewers tuning in for his fights on free-to-view network ITV, in country of sixty million that is an extraordinary achievement.
Success; from a sporting perspective, he had beaten every world title holder in the featherweight division by the time he was 25. What more was their for him to achieve inside the ring, except beat them all again?
Money; the total career earnings of Hamed were reported to be in excess of £30 million. In the year 2000 alone, Hamed made £7.5 million, despite only having two fights. Hamed’s haul of £7.5 million was twice as much as soccer star David Beckham earned that same year. The lucrative 6 year sponsorship deal with Adidas, and a 6-fight, £6 million deal with HBO had also swelled the young fighter’s bank account.
All these issues were undoubtedly contributing factors, although the truth may never be fully known. But what Hamed achieved inside and outside the ring was significant and thrilling. A fighter as exciting and enticing as ‘Prince’ Naseem may not been seen on these shores again, any time soon. And for that fact lone, he deserves our applause and our appreciation.
56 Responses to “Naseem Hamed: Why did the ‘Prince’ Retire?”
Leave a Reply
please use above banner to link back to us!
Every great fight deserves a greater come back even the greatest lose rounds its time for round two you’re are a boxing God so dust yourself off And try again you are legend.champ
Barrera-Hamed 2 in Lightweight. 2012.
I don’t hope he comes back. He is too old now and I’d rather see my idols not take too many punches to the head.
Still, Naseem in one year or two will have his way to the IBHOF opened wide. He is one of the greatest IMO.
no boddy in histroy in the sport did did prince but while u face afraid boxer naaz in his prime can beat barrera by the booooooom no boddy punsh did prince naseem u r a legend of boxing with ali all haters naaz didnt ever afraid to contenue i think naaz was want no loses in his career but that happen out his prime so naaz miss love of boxing and 2 more reason naaz acciedent and naaz exactly after barrera fight he took im now only think about stay with my family but legend stay the legend all the time
was a decent entertainer
Naseem Hamed may not have been the best featherweight in the world but he was almost certainly the ugliest! “Old Big Ears” was voted 10th alltime ugliest sports star in a 2007 poll of 4000 women!!
نحن نفتخر بك يا أمير الملاكمة و عليك ان تصنع ابطالا جدد
wat a boss!!!!!!
افضل ملاكم في العالم اتمنى ان يعود My Translation; Because he used to be a good boxer when he was with Brendan Ingle, then he started to rely too much on his power.
He went down hill fast when he split with Ingle. Barerra was the better fighter though.
THE ONE AND ONLY PRINCE NASEEM HAMED WILL ALWAYS BE A BOXING GREAT.
Hi i am your biggest fan please dont retire
soory about the writting
The Prince is always gonna be a great fighter to me and the best in my eyes. I have seen most of your fights and all the ones on HBO you handle your business even with barrera for you always be my hero. You are always gonna be THE MAN: CHAMP.
افضل ملاكم في العالم اتمنى ان يعود
افضل ملاكم في العالم
YOU HAD STYLE COME BACK
Prince lost against the better fighter at the time, namely himself. There is a huge difference between playing a game and being the game.A man is not to be judged on his failures, but rather for the challenges he overcomes. So get your ass back in the ring for one last dance & respect will be your reward.
Bungu was so confused when the prince arrived like Aladin
he was still looking for the genie after the fight. Vuyani ‘The Beast’ Bungu, the fallen but not defeated!
He was a good boxer… But he didn’t have the heart to make Barrera fight in the rematch (which was in his contract clause…….Sryy but a fighter with no heart, like that, deserves to go out the way he did….. Instead of fighting Barrera for his last fights Clavuo (or w.e. his name was)….. Weak….. Barrera deserved the win and deserves the credit for ending the ‘princesses career’…
NAZ, you are really a great boxer. I love your way of fight.
NASEEM Please come bacK !
wiehgt for weight, if he didnt let the skill get to his head, prince naseem hamed, could of been the best fighter in the world…
be happy naz peace
Naz was way past it when he fought Barrera and also in the 90s,
Barrera didnt want to fight a prime Hamed and ducked him.
Naz would have easily KO Barrera in his prime just like Junior Jones did.
NAZ YOU ARE A LEGEND.
PRINCE YOU SHOULD NEVER FORGET YOU ARE A LEGEND !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
if i was prince i would of whent back to the gym and trained hard then i would have a big showdown with berrera and knock him out !!! to really shoe him whos boss
if prince can knock berrera out the first time i am shure he can do it again !!!!!!
probably the best british boxer ever in his wight i hope he comes back he will be a champion again !!!!!!
naz waz the man who had evrythin. class, skill,jabs,talk and lighting pace. ive got to say he was the easily one of thee best lightweight in the buissness. the way he gave is heart and soul to entertain evryone and still beat the person in the ring at the same tym means alot, it means he waz doing 2 jobs at the same tym. ive got hundrds of vids and i look bk to thank him wat he has done for the sport and i cant wait until i have a wee boy so i can tell him all abt naseem.
1 DEFEAT IN HIS LIFE TYM AS A PRO COMON GUYS ITS A DEGREE AT THE HIGHEST LEVEL.
im my heart PRINCE NASEEM HAMED IS AND WILL ALWAYS BE A LEGEND.
YOUR A REAL STAR!
I don’t think no really knows why he retired, it may be one of the reasons that some have mentioned or maybe none.
The fight he loss really only came down to style, there is no way he would have beaten Barrera with his style of boxing (hands low throwing punches off balance etc) but if he had a game plan and adjusted his style which is hard to do he could have won.
I do hope he comes back.
The theory that Naz retired because Barrera exposed him for being a phony is the most ridiculous thing I have ever heard. Naz at his best would have knocked out anyone at any time! This guy had phenominal power created by his great technique, he had great style etc…He made bad choices in his life and now he has to live with them. Naz needed Ingle just like Rocky needed Mick, unfortunately Naz did’nt find a friend like Apollo Creed.
I’ve been watching boxing my entire life. I am also a two time New York Golden Gloves Champion myself. I don’t know how people who call themselves boxing experts can write such inaccurate articles.
Hamed was overrated. Period. Barrera exposed him for the phony he was. And after the fight even Hamed realized this. Thats why he retired. To avoid further embarrasment. He already embarrased himself enough.
I was watching bout’s from Naz’s career last weekend and he really was a class operator,bottom line about barrera fight,Naz didn’t prepare for it!
Manny Stewart said as much in a newspaper shortly after the fight.It was sad he retired,because there’s not been a fighter that entertaining since,accept for Calzaghe and he’s gone too now.
Hopefully,there’s some really great fighter’s on the way.
guy i just read ur last line i take it back ur thick. naz had the ultimate jab ko power both left and right the hardest p4p puncher ever. lightning speed aswell. u talk so much crap it a joke mate
harrod naz quit because he didnt want to box anymore. dont u understand that? what is the point of boxing on if u dont love the sport anymore? u wont be able to put in 100% and thats what happend to nas! they say he got schooled by barrera losing 115-112 on 2 of the cards 3 points when u hardly trained for the fight. barrera was at his very best that night we all no a on form naz would have won probs a point win but i lop sided 1. as for his chin come on every time he went down he was up like a shot never hurt. but when he knocked someone down GOOD NIGHT.look at the sanchez fight and naz was very poor that night
Get back Naz,boxing just aint the same without you.you are a legend!!!
This was one of the most unprofessional championship bouts ever on the behalf of Hamed. Real champs don’t accept defeat. Hamed never respected the craft of Barrera never put the bells and whistles away and showed us what he’s made of. Does anyone remember the Camacho Rosario fight? Camacho had the same attitude but realized he was in the fight of his life and proved what he’s made of. That my friends Hamed will never be able to prove now nor Tyson. Holyfield did against Bowe. Lewis avenged his defeats twice.
Those are true Champions.
NAS WAS THE MOST EXCITING BOXER TO WATCH OF ALL TIME….HIS RING ENTRANCES WERE 2ND TO NONE, THE WAY HE CAUGHT HIS OPPONENTS WITH PUNCHES FROM ALL ANGLES WERE SUPERB…DO YOU KNOW ANY OTHER BOXER THAT COULD CAUSE SO MUCH EXCITEMENT? NO! I DIDNT THINK SO.
THE GUY WAS A LEGEND-FACT!
COULD HE CAUSE A STORM IN THE BOXING WORLD AGAIN? YES!
SO IF YOUR READING THIS NAS, COME ON SORT YOURSELF OUT AND GET BACK WHERE YOU BELONG, YOU SAID IN 2006 AFTER AN AMIR KHAN FIGHT THAT YOU WERE COMING BACK…WELL HURRY THE F*** UP AND SHUT ALL THESE CRITICS UP AND BRING BACK THE GOOD OLD DAYS….”WALK LIKE A CHAMPION, TALK LIKE A CHAMPION”..
Grate articale
There is some thing every one has to understand, outside the ring naseem was a very down to earth person with even people he don’t know he always was like that even during his youth. infact it was him who helped many people out many of his boxing friends and trainer he regarded his trainer one of his own family (also brendan was a top man) even after they split he always had grate respect for him, and it wasnt him who turned his back on the people “(who helped him)” and I’m sure any of you would feel heart broken if you see the people who you helped out back bite in the jim and talk behind your back especially when he became religouse he was even more helpful to them but they didnt want that they just used him, even his friends that he grew up in the gym with. and there is a dark side to boxing that people has to uderstand naseem was isolated in so many ways by the people who you call “helped him” and it just piled up. for us his people regardles weather he wins or loses, weather he comes back to boxing or not in our eyes he will always be our brother in ISLAM and he will always be a real Champion. Not a paper fix up one like the rest of them, and all of you out there who you call your selves as his fans if thats true than you’ll prove it and you help the guy come over the circumstances that he is in now. But what you call a fan who supports you when you win and insults you win you lose.
Regards to you all.
If Naseem did not exist, will any of you watch the feather weight fights?, off course not, but with NAZ boxing skills and excitment, you had no choice but to pay to watch the legend doing it again and again…. There will never arise another complete fighter and entertainer as NASEEM HAMED
Truly a guy who used to back his outspoken words in the ring without doubt, something no one can take away from him. OK people say he bottled out to come back, but at the time he lost to barreara i’d say he accomplished a lot to even think about makin a comeback. You have to admit, since Hamed being out of the ring has made boxing boreing. I think he’ll come back stronger and more entertaining than ever. Brother hamed you still have plenty of support compared to criticism
T-Bird, i couldn’t sum it up any better than u have, i will always remember him for not having the bottle to come back,
Naz was a great boxer and a great entertainer at the same time.
We need guys like him. I miss him a lot.
hes crap a bum
I agree with you for once C-philly. Fair play.
Naz Was defo one of the most entertaing british fighters. The fight with kelly was magical and if NAZ had beaten barrera and morales he would have been an all time great for britain. Very close but too far
his chin was fine! he just leaned back with his hands down all the time!!!
no-one ever kod him or even came close!!!
boxing needs guys like naz!!
love him or hate him? he was pure box office as they say!
Wont miss him at all but at one time he was ok to watch…… to watch him lose to Barrera! The only exciting thing was his entrances and not much of a chin.
It seems everybodys pretty much at the same reasoning for Hamed retiring.
He didnt have the hunger for the training, he didnt have the focus for concentration and he could never chill out and become a proper gloves up, jab and move boxer.
He was just a flash entertainer who was unbeaten, he survived in the sport on massive knockouts and dancing round being very very unorthadox.
Then he was beaten, he lost his unbeaten record, soundly, he wnew why he lost, he couldnt prance around the ring against a Berrera like he wanted to, he couldnt get barrera to walk on to his shots, Barrera was too clever and ring smart.
And that was it, without that extra buzz of being unbeaten, winning in his style and having a new baby son he jsut couldnt find the motivation to carry on.
Such a shame, my 2nd fave of all time behind Nigel Benn. My whole family loved Hamed and we still all sit down to his old DVD,s from time to time.
What a waste, Hamed got what he deserved that night, his arrogance was his undoing i know that was what hamed was about and he missed in the boxing world, but to take someone like Barrera so lightly and show him no respect whatsoever, but what Barrera did that night was just a masterclass, everytime Hamed was loading up Barrera got in first and was right in front of him, didn’t allow Hamed to come from crazy angles, And the wasted part is if Naz had took that defeat on the chin what a fighter he would have been, he had it all, and i’m sure he would have beaten Barrera in a rematch.
It was also the conflict styles of trainers, Emmanuel Steward wanted him to throw combinations and box more than his style demanded. He couldn’t adjust. It was also the birth of his son and his realisation that he spent more time training and working on his career than enjoying the life he’d built for himself. Still great in my mind and im sure had a different amhed approached the barrera fight, he would of won.
watch the documentary “little prince, big fight” and you will see why he lost that fight, not saying he wouldnt have lost anyway. he got booed off in hes last fight and hes pride damaged, what a great entertainer he was and one of the great knockout artists of all time, he has been missed
come on Prince, come back. Boxing needs you. we don’t want paper champions like aamir khan & co. Come back & fight Barerra! Bring the passion back into nowadays dry stale old boxing!!
you can love him or hate him but i think even the haters loved him secretly. He was the absolute best. Not the greatest, that was Ali but he was definately very good and most definately Mr Entertainment! I miss him.
Excellent, well informed article. Hamed lost his enthusiasm for the sport and money and fame eventually got to him. In his heyday, he was one of the most exciting sportsmen on the planet and drew crowds from all around the world.
Its a well know fact that he did very little training for the Barrera fight and his lifestyle outside the ring at the time left much to be desired.
Aside from this, his achievements and ‘star’ attraction should not be ignored and he should be inducted in the hall of fame (far more deserving than Barry Mcguigan).
he was special.
Dont think he could handle the loss and had no one to turn to after that .He turned his back on the people that helped him from the start .All he had left was the hangers on……I will allways remember hamed for not having the bottle to come back shame really because he was good………..