The Illusion of Naseem Hamed’s Greatness

By Boxing News - 07/05/2009 - Comments

hamed45763376By Giancarlo Malinconico: The media tends to praise “punchers” because they are in exciting fights and attract mainstream attention to the sport of boxing such as Mike Tyson did in his day. But many of these punchers are just the proverbial “flash in the pans,” or their star burns out very quickly. Moreover, most of these “punchers” are overhyped and overrated. Naseem Hamed is the perfect example of this phenomenon.

Hamed built his career around knocking out C and D level fighters in the United Kingdom. Sure Hamed had a high knockout percentage, but he does not own a single victory over any great fighter. Hamed’s biggest wins probably came against Kevin Kelley and Wayne McCollough, who were never that great in their own right. The illusion of Hamed was apparent; he was an exciting knockout machine as long as you matched him with the “right” opponents. Hamed’s career consisted of years and years of exciting knockouts of subpar opponents. He captivated fans and brought a lot of attention to the sport, and for that Hamed should be praised. But Hamed’s illusion like most illusions eventually face reality, and that was the case when he was finally tested against a top-level fighter in Marco A. Barrera. Hamed realized what most big punchers realize when they step up their level of competition: the knockouts don’t come so easy anymore. Despite the scorecards, Barrera dominated Hamed who seemed to accept defeat towards the later rounds of contest. Hamed was humbled like a magician whose bag of tricks was exposed to the crowd.

To many boxing fans, particularly those in the United Kingdom, Hamed was beloved because he was never in a dull fight. And that is undeniable. But let us never confuse being a great performer (such as Arturo Gatti) with being a great fighter. They are two very different concepts. And boxing historians ought to remember Hamed as the former. Furthermore, it was not the fact that he was not as great as most would like to admit, it is that he never attempted to seek out the best possible opponents. And after he was soundly beat by Barrera, he did what he had previously done his entire career: sought out another match against a D level fighter in the United Kingdom.



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