By Scott Gilfoid: Former IBF/WBA/WBO featherweight champion Naseem Hamed (36-1, 31 KOs) believes he would have too much for either Josh Warrington or Carl Frampton. Hamed sees himself beating both on the same night.
Frampton (26-1, 15 KOs) and Warrington (27-0, 6 KOs) are facing each other on December 22 at the Manchester Arena in Manchester, England.
Hamed has been retire from boxing since 2002, so there’s no way of testing his opinion out. Hamed’s last fight was in 2002 in beating Manuel Calvo by a lopsided 12 round unanimous decision. Hamed looked good in that fight, but he chose to walk away from the sport anyway.
“Probably both on the same night. That’s not disrespecting them, I love them,” Naseem Hamed said to Boxing Social. “I’m not just blowing my own trumpet, I’m a one-off. I set the bar too high, to a point that you probably can’t even see it.”
Hamed could be right. Frampton was beaten twice basically by Leo Santa Cruz. The judges gave Frampton a controversial 12 round decision win over Santa Cruz in their first fight in July 2016 in New York, but the boxing public saw the fight as a robbery. Frampton was out-boxed by Santa Cruz. Frampton also has a controversial 12 round split decision win over Scott Quigg in 2016. That was another fight that could have gone the other way.
The fight that hurts Hamed’s legacy was his 12 round decision loss to Marco Antonio Barrera in 2001. Hamed was completely out-classed by Barrera in that fight, and he was never competitive for an instant. It’s a miracle that Hamed was able to go the full 12 rounds.
Warrington, 28, is seen as a paper champion by a lot of boxing fans. Whether you can agree with that or not, it’s hard to see Warrngton as the weakest ling among the current champions at featherweight. These are the champions at 126:
– Gary Russell Jr.
– Oscar Valdez
– Leo Santa Cruz
– Jesus M Rojas
– Josh Warrington
– Carl Frampton (interim WBO hampion)
Warrington doesn’t fit in with those fighters for the most part. He’s a good basic champion, but it’s impossible to see Warrington beating the likes of Santa Cruz, Russell Jr. or Valdez. Those guys are fighting on another level right now. I’m just saying.
Hamed would probably have too much power for Warrington or Frampton. Hamed had that crazy style of fighting that was unorthodox to the extreme, but his punching power made him dangerous. The only guy that could stand up to Hamed was Barrera, and that was because he had such a good chin.
There’s nothing wrong with Warrington and Frampton playing second fiddle to Hamed. There’s not shame in that. It’s clear that Hamed was more popular than either of them, and his career was better than what we’ve seen from those guys up to this point.
