Naseem Hamed

Hamed was born in February 1974 in Sheffield, South Yorkshire, England, to Yemeni parents in a shop owned by his father. He grew up with eight siblings. A protege of Brendan Ingle's Wincobank gym, his talent and flashy southpaw style marked him out from an early age. ==Professional career==

Early career Hamed started boxing professionally at flyweight in 1992. He soon began rising through the ranks as he knocked out a series of opponents in the opening rounds. At age 20, he won the European bantamweight title, comprehensively beating the beleaguered Vincenzo Belcastro over twelve rounds. After one defence he won the WBC International super bantamweight title in 1994, overwhelming Freddy Cruz in Sheffield, whom he severely punished and stopped in six rounds. Hamed's popularity grew, his unorthodox style winning a large fan base and his boxing antics generating a large group of detractors. This was also the first bout where Hamed badly injured his hand, a problem that would continue for the rest of his career. Hamed vs. Medina Hamed's next defence was in Dublin against former two-time world featherweight title holder Manuel Medina. In an entertaining, tough contest for Hamed on the night, Medina won several rounds of the fight. After knocking Medina down heavily in round 2, Hamed struggled to finish the fight. Hamed eventually knocked Medina down another two times in the 9th round. Finally, at the end of round 11, Medina's corner withdrew him from the fight on the advice of the ringside doctor. Hamed revealed in his post-fight interview that he had fought with a heavy cold. Medina would go on to have many more tough title fights, remarkably winning versions of the featherweight world title another three times. Hamed's next opponent was the 27–0 Remigio Molina of Argentina, who was stopped in two rounds. Unified featherweight champion Hamed vs. Johnson featherweight title at a World Wrestling Federation event in Sheffield Arena, England, 1997 In February 1997, Hamed defeated long-time IBF champion Tom "Boom Boom" Johnson in eight rounds in a unification bout at the London Arena. After being constantly stunned and staggered from round 3 onwards, Johnson was finally dropped by a huge uppercut, then saved from further punishment by the referee. Hamed's first defence of both the WBO & IBF titles was a first-round KO of veteran British boxer and European champion Billy Hardy. Before the bout Hamed had correctly predicted he would win in round 1. The next defence was an easy two-round win against a hugely outclassed Juan Gerardo Cabrera. Due to boxing politics involving the IBF's mandatory challenger, Hamed was soon forced to relinquish the IBF title. Hamed vs. Badillo In Hamed's hometown of Sheffield in October 1997, he produced one of the best performances of his career in defending his WBO title against Jose Badillo, whose corner entered the ring to stop the fight during round 7. Hamed's status as one of the biggest draws in the sport was evident with a stellar undercard that included Joe Calzaghe vs. Chris Eubank for the world super middleweight title. Hamed vs. Kelley In late 1997 Hamed made his heavily hyped U.S. debut. His ceremonious arrival on the British Airways Concorde was covered by multiple media outlets. There, he and former WBC title holder Kevin Kelley fought in a highly entertaining bout at New York's Madison Square Garden. Prior to the fight, Kelley told Hamed, "I'm gonna smoke your boots". This fight marks something of a watershed in Hamed's career, as he was forced, for the first time, to abandon his hands-down style of fighting throughout the entire course of the bout, given the calibre of Kelley. Nonetheless, despite suffering three knockdowns himself, Hamed put Kelley down for a third and final time to win by a fourth-round knockout. This was his first of many fights on HBO. Hamed vs. Sanchez Hamed fought in August 2000 against Augie Sanchez at Foxwoods Resort, Mashantucket, Connecticut, United States. Sanchez is known for being the last American to defeat Floyd Mayweather as an amateur boxer. Hamed successfully retained his WBO title for the fifteenth and final time against Sanchez via a devastating fourth-round knockout. Hamed broke his hand badly in the bout, and following surgery he spent half a year out of the gym, gaining 35 pounds in weight. Rather than face the unknown EBU Champion & WBO mandatory challenger István Kovács, Hamed relinquished his WBO title to pave the way for a Superfight with Marco Antonio Barrera. Hamed vs. Barrera Eight weeks prior to the fight, which took place at the MGM Grand Garden Arena in Las Vegas on 7 April 2001, Marco Antonio Barrera prepared to fight. Barrera had moved up a weight division. At the end of training camp he was in the best shape of his life. According to Sky Sports, Barrera had "trained like a monk" in Big Bear, California, while Hamed trained in Bing Crosby's old house. Emanuel Steward had arrived to oversee the last two weeks of Hamed's training, including sparring, and was worried immediately. Hamed could not hit Barrera with his trademark lefts as Barrera circled to his left and worked both head and body. Barrera was not a fan of Hamed's antics and responded to Hamed's punches during clinches. On one occasion early in the fight, Hamed grabbed Barrera and they both fell to the ground where Barrera threw a right jab, leading to a warning from referee Joe Cortez. In the 12th and final round Barrera trapped Hamed in a full-nelson and forced his head into the turnbuckle, resulting in a point deducted by referee Joe Cortez. Ultimately, Barrera threw more, and harder, punches and more impressive combinations than Hamed throughout the course of the fight. Barrera was awarded the victory via a unanimous decision, with the scorecards reading 115–112, 115–112, 116–111 and won the lineal and IBO featherweight titles. The fight drew 310,000 pay-per-view buys on HBO. IBO featherweight champion Hamed vs. Calvo On 18 May 2002 at London Arena, Docklands, London, Hamed returned to the ring for what turned out to be his final boxing match, against the European champion Manuel Calvo (33 wins, 4 losses, 1 draw) for the IBO World featherweight title. Hamed was booed by the 10,000 fans as he won unconvincingly on points after 12 rounds looking sluggish and uninterested. The judges scored the fight 120–110 and 119–109 (twice). In a post-fight interview with Ian Darke, Hamed assured a quick return to the ring, which ultimately never happened. Retirement Hamed was just 28 years old when he stopped fighting. For years, Hamed did not confirm whether he had retired or not; there were talks of several fights in the UK and in the US, including Hamed's brother and manager, Riath, speaking to HBO about a potential fight with Michael Brodie. In an interview for BBC Radio Sportsweek, Hamed said that his retirement was largely due to chronic problems with his hands, including multiple fractures as well as surgery. ==Personal life==

Hamed is a Muslim, and frequently recited the takbir out loud before his fights. Sean Ingle writes, "he was a proud Muslim who appealed to large chunks of working-class Britain. His last fight was watched by 11 million people on ITV." By 1997, Hamed had an annual income of $14million (£) from fight purses and endorsements, ranking at number-22 on Forbes list of the world's highest-paid athletes for 1997. By January 2001, Hamed had reportedly amassed a fortune of £50million ($). He earned over $million from fight purses, including $8.5million from his fight against Barrera. Hamed was the second richest British boxer, after heavyweight champion Lennox Lewis in 2003. Hamed's two sons, Aadam and Sami, have been training to become professional boxers. In 2023, it was announced that his younger brother, Ali, had died. Driving offences On 31 March 2006, Hamed pleaded guilty at Sheffield Crown Court of dangerous driving in relation to a collision at Ringinglow Road in Sheffield on 2 May 2005, in which his McLaren-Mercedes SLR crossed a solid white line overtaking a Ford Mondeo at a speed in excess of 90mph and crashed head on into a Volkswagen Golf before hitting the Mondeo. The Golf driver, Anthony Burgin, had fractures to "every major bone" and bruising to the brain yet Hamed ran away from the crash. Burgin's wife was also seriously injured; Hamed was unhurt. On 12 May 2006, Hamed was sentenced to 15 months' imprisonment and 4 years' disqualification from driving, after the court heard he had been trying to impress his passenger, businessman Asif Ayub. At a jury trial in March 2008, Anthony Burgin was cleared of dangerous driving in relation to an incident on 19 April 2007 involving Hamed's wife Eleasha. ==Legacy and influence==

Hamed's boxing career was seen by many experts in the sport as one of massive potential. Frank Warren, the boxing promoter, once said of Hamed: "I think at one stage he was the most exciting fighter that I'd ever been involved with. At one stage, in the early part of his career, he could have gone on to become one of the great fighters. But that disappeared when he didn't fight as regularly as he should have done, when he was cutting corners on his training. It just didn't work out for him from that point on." Moreover, commentators have pointed out that Hamed's ability should have propelled him to achievements that would have given him legendary status, but that his noted dislike of the long hard training camps and long periods away from his family hindered this. As popular lower weight fighters like Oscar De La Hoya and Kostya Tszyu moved into the mid-weight classes and the Mexican champion Julio César Chávez declined, Hamed and Arturo Gatti filled the void. Hamed's boxing antics made him the new poster-boy for lighter-weight boxers and his charisma attracted a large number of fans. In 2002 the UK public voted Hamed's victory over Kevin Kelley on the list of the 100 Greatest Sporting Moments. British boxing pundit Steve Bunce stated on 15 March 2008 edition of BBC panel show Fighting Talk that Hamed was the greatest British boxer of all time. World Boxing, a sister publication of The Ring magazine, ranked Hamed the 11th greatest British boxer of all time, while Gareth A. Davies, boxing correspondent of The Telegraph ranked him 10th. In 2016, ESPN ranked Hamed at number 22 on its list of the top 25 pound-for-pound fighters of the last 25 years. Cultural impact Hamed is considered one of the most successful and influential British fighters. UK sports commentator Steve Bunce called him the "most influential fighter of my 35 years in the British boxing business". According to boxing trainer Emanuel Steward, Hamed "opened the door" for British fighters as well as for boxers from lower weight divisions to earn significant prize money; his earnings were unprecedented for a featherweight. According to his boxing trainer nephew SugarHill Steward, Hamed's "flair and skill and confidence" inspired "a generation" and "gave fighters over here a massive opportunity, the confidence to crack the American market." HBO executive Lou DiBella compared his impact to that of Muhammad Ali, arguing that Hamed "changed boxing" and "redefined the fighter as a showman and an entertainer". Hamed, who is of Yemeni heritage, is credited with inspiring British Asian involvement in boxing. Conor McGregor, Israel Adesanya, Floyd Mayweather, Manny Pacquiao, Nonito Donaire, David Benavidez, Billy Joe Saunders, Amir Khan, Carl Froch, and David Haye. He also inspired a number of boxing trainers who have gone on to train world champions, including SugarHill Steward and Ben Davison. Hamed was referenced by hip-hop artist Nas in the song "You Won't See Me Tonight", with the lyrics "I can't forget how I met you, you thought I was a boxer/ Prince Naseem, but I'm a mobster, Nas from Queens". Hamed himself recorded a song with hip hop group Kaliphz called "Walk Like a Champion", which reached number 23 in the UK Singles Chart in 1996. Hamed had a licensed sports fighting game, Prince Naseem Boxing, published by Codemasters for the PlayStation console in 2000. A portable version of the game was also released for the Game Boy Color, developed by Virtucraft, which later in 2002 developed a Mike Tyson based follow-up, Mike Tyson Boxing, for the Game Boy Advance. Hamed also inspired a character called Prince Naseem in Squaresoft's fighting game Ehrgeiz, released in 1998. While called "Prince Naseem" in the original Japanese version, the character's name was changed to "Prince Doza" in the Western versions. In the Japanese manga series Hajime no Ippo, the fictional American boxing champion Bryan Hawk is based on Naseem Hamed. In the Japanese manga series Batuque, the fictional character Shyun Amamiya is a fan of Naseem Hamed and takes inspiration from his fighting style. In the Tamil movie Sarpatta Parambarai (2021), the boxing style of fictional character Dancing Rose, played by Shabeer Kallarakkal, is based on Naseem Hamed. A film based on Hamed and his relationship with trainer Brendan Ingle was announced in 2023 and released in 2025, starring Amir El-Masry as Hamed and Pierce Brosnan as Brendan Ingle. It was directed by Rowan Athale, with Sylvester Stallone as an executive producer. Mena Massoud and Paddy Considine were initially to star in the film. ==Professional boxing record==

International } Pay-per-view bouts Naseem Hamed held the pay-per-view record in the United Kingdom up until he was surpassed by Lennox Lewis vs. Mike Tyson in 2002. }) ==See also==