Prince Naseem Hamed: The Final Dance

Prince Naseem Hamed: The Final Dance

Prince Naseem Hamed brought drama, excitement and noise, and plenty of it when he was showboating his way to the pinnacle of his sport. But his career ended with little fanfare, retirement seemingly unannounced, and unnoticed. In many ways, Hamed had outstayed his welcome. And you suspect he knew it. The public, and the press, had all tired of him and his vocal antics.

Hamed was an extraordinarily gifted boxer who could quite easily have gone on to become the greatest British fighter of all time. But he negated much of his undoubted skills for an over-reliance on the big punch. Couple that with reported erratic training habits, and Hamed was a much lesser fighter than he should have been for the final part of his career. The narrative that he listened to the wrong people had much merit. As did those who said he listened to nobody.

The cockiness and self-bravado, while a turn-on to some, was always likely to bring about his downfall. It was always tolerated rather than truly loved. But when the ego got totally out of control, it was only a matter of time before the public love affair would end, and more crucially, an opponent would end his career. That night in Las Vegas in 2001, when the legendary Mexican Marco Antonio Barrera humbled him, wasn’t quite the final dance, but in many ways, it was.

Hamed was only 28 when he entered the ring against Spaniard Manuel Calvo in 2002. Hamed should have been coming to his peak. The best years still ahead of him. But the fall from grace had been coming. A trip to New York to fight Kevin Kelley in 1997 was supposed to be the big introduction to the American public. But it nearly ended in disaster. It was exciting without question, and Hamed came through in the end, but the sight of him being bounced off the canvas was not a good look. Future opponents would have seen much hope in the flaws that Hamed demonstrated. Those flaws were there for all to see.

The luck was rode further as Hamed moved on from his life and death struggle with Kelley. There were further trips to the canvas as Hamed skirted with defeat too many times for comfort. Long before Barrera brutally exposed those flaws in Vegas, the demise of Hamed had long been in the air. The big-punching unified world super-featherweight champion was wildly exciting with that added touch of extreme vulnerability. Make no mistake, Hamed was pure box office. Like him or not, viewers in their millions tuned in. Many to see him lose.

In many ways, Hamed was underprepared for someone like Barrera. Time was running out for Hamed. A documentary covering the build-up to the big fight with Barrera highlighted perfectly everything that was wrong in the Hamed inner circle. Even now, it seems unbelievable that the documentary saw the light of day.

The one-sided points defeat Hamed suffered at the hands of Barrera was one where no benefit of hindsight was needed. It was beyond predictable. No Plan B. In truth, there was no Plan A. Hamed was one-dimensional. Barrera, anything but. It was Hamed’s 16th defence of his various world featherweight baubles. And his last. Hamed promised he would be back, and vowed revenge. A promise he couldn’t keep. Hamed had a rematch clause. He didn’t activate it. A telling sign of many things.

Hamed went away to lick his over-inflated ego. Brendan Ingle had long gone. The biggest mistake Hamed ever made with his boxing career. Emanuel Steward followed Ingle, but after the Barrera disaster, he to departed the sinking ship. Without either, the end was never likely to be far away. The voices of reason assigned to history.

The European champion Manuel Calvo was the first opponent on the supposed big relaunch. But Calvo satisfied few, he had a couple of wins over Steve Robinson, but little else to offer hope. The HBO paymasters weren’t happy and offered alternatives. HBO and Hamed eventually found common ground. They went their separate ways.

After a 13-month hiatus and a couple of false starts, the Prince returned hoping to reclaim his throne. But at 28, his time had already passed. Hamed still drew a crowd. The London Arena was sold-out. Some came hoping to see a spectacular return, others undoubtedly hoped to see a spectacular fall. All parties were disappointed in what they saw.

The IBO tried to tell us it was a fight for a world title. Like the fight itself, it was a hard sell. Hamed used to be the ultimate showman, who delivered excitement in abundance. His fights brought guaranteed drama. You didn’t dare take your eyes off in case you missed a sudden violent finish. The final dance you struggled to keep your eyes open. Barrera took something away from Hamed that couldn’t be put back. Hamed always believed in himself, even when a touch of humility would have been better served. The nightmare experience he shared with Barrera left doubt in his mind. Hamed claimed it was ring rust. But it looked like something more. Much more.

After 4 rounds the crowd in that London arena had seen enough. In truth, we all had. The paying punters started to vote with their feet. Those that stayed booed. And loudly. Hamed won on points with ease. But he was supposed to. He just didn’t without his usual brand of excitement. Without any excitement. And that was the problem. Hamed claimed he had injured his hand early in the contest and those that booed and fled the arena were ignorant of his craft. But as he did for much of his later years in the ring, he was missing the point.

Despite many things and Hamed at times did himself no favours with some of his antics, the end was beyond sad. Maybe he did have it coming, and boxing karma took another victim. Certainly, many of the boxing journalists would have written their post-fight words with much glee. Some of the old scribes had been a victim of his trash talk in the past. They would have remembered when their post-fight reports were typed up.

After everything that came before, Hamed left boxing almost unnoticed. There were protests from his camp that Hamed hadn’t retired and he would return again. Michael Brodie the intended opponent for the ‘comeback’ was kept waiting for the call that never came. Hamed never did fight again after the fight with Calvo. There was talk of bad hands, and while that was undoubtedly true, I think his heart had gone out of the sport. Some would say, Barrera, took that away from him also.