By William Mackay: In the latest boxing news, Naseem Hamed (36-1, 31 KO’s) has finally admitted why he stepped away from boxing seven years ago, in 2002, while in the prime of his career and says that it’s because of his bad hands. In an interview with the BBC, Hamed said that his hands would balloon up after he would fight and that his hands “Couldn’t take the power of my punch.”

That’s often the case of big punchers like Hamed. Either the hand or the wrist breaks down when big punchers make impact repeatedly over the course of a bout. Hamed was only 28 when he stopped fighting in 2002, and was one of the biggest punchers in the featherweight division.

From 1995 to 2000, Hamed held the World Boxing Organization featherweight title and knocked out 14 of his 16 opponents during that span of time. Hamed says he would have continued on had his hands had been okay. In his last two fights of his career against Marco Antonio Barrera and Manuel Calvo, Hamed looked like a shell of himself and didn’t have the big power in either of those two fights that he had earlier in his career.

In 2000, Hamed was still punching with a great deal of power, knocking out Augie Sanchez in four rounds in August 2000. However, eight months later, Hamed looked to have lost much of his power in a losing 12 round effort against Barrera in April 2001. Even before Hamed entered the ring on that night, he looked like he had lost much of his mental edge and seemed reluctant to fight.

After Hamed defeated Calvo by a lopsided 12-round unanimous decision in May 2002, it was assumed that Hamed would keep fighting. However, he stayed away from the ring and just never came back. For all that time, boxing fans have long wondered why precisely did Hamed stop fighting.

Some people assumed that Hamed was a bully and when he was defeated by Barrera, it ruined him mentally. Others, however, felt that Hamed had made so much money that it had made him soft and caused him to lose interest in the sport.

They also feel that by the time that Hamed had decided to make a comeback, he was already much too fat to ever make it back down to the featherweight division without undergoing lengthy training and dieting. Hamed’s weight has ballooned since his retirement and he looks nothing like the slender, youthful fighter he was while fighting as a featherweight. Hamed could probably get down to featherweight if he trained for a long period of time, but given his advanced age and how big he’s gotten in recent years, the chances for success would be quite low.

Bailey to Move Up to the Welterweight Division

Light welterweight Randall Bailey, 34, is apparently planning on moving up to the welterweight division after being stopped in the 11th round by International Boxing Federation light welterweight champion Juan Urango last Friday night. Bailey (39-7, 35 KO’s) was knocked down three times in the fight and took a vicious beating from the 9th round until being stopped in the 11th by the younger, stronger Urango.

Bailey thinks that he still has the talent to be one of the best fighters in boxing, but feels that he’ll be stronger at the welterweight division which will give him an extra seven pounds to work with than Bailey had as a light welterweight. This could be true, who knows?

However, Bailey’s big power might not be nearly as impressive in the welterweight division than it is against the smaller light welterweight class. Big punchers are a dime a dozen in the welterweight division, and Bailey will be just one of many.

Instead of moving up in weight, Bailey should have considered working on his boxing skills and movement. Because if he had been able to move around the ring with a little bit more ability against Urango, he probably would have beaten him like Ricky Hatton and Andre Berto did. Bailey made the mistake of being too stationary against Urango and paid the ultimate price by being stopped.

Urango is good against fighters that don’t move much and Bailey should have used movement as his main focus on fighting Urango instead of trying to slug with him. I don’t expect Bailey to have much luck as a welterweight.