Naseem Hamed

Thumb

Image Source: Unknown report

User Rating

(0 users)
Data Complete 90%

15%

Born
1974 (51 years old)
Shiny National flag

Sheffield, South Yorkshire, England

Position
Boxer

Status
Retired

Ethnicity
Arabic

Team Number

Height
5 ft 4 1⁄2 in (164 cm)

Outfitter

Kit

Wage Year

Player Cutout
No Cutout thumb

Archive

Full Body Render

Sport

Fighting

Team
_Retired Boxing

League
_Defunct Fighting Teams

Creative Commons Artwork
No

Description

Naseem Hamed (Arabic: نسيم حميد; born 12 February 1974), nicknamed Prince Naseem and Naz, is a British former professional boxer who competed from 1992 to 2002. He held multiple featherweight world championships between 1995 and 2000, and reigned as lineal champion from 1998 to 2001. In 2015, he was inducted into the International Boxing Hall of Fame. The Ring magazine retroactively awarded Hamed their featherweight title in 2019 to acknowledge his dominance of the division and the multiple champions he defeated; he is the only former world champion in any division thus far to receive this honour.

Hamed made his professional debut in the flyweight division at the age of 18 in 1992. In 1994, he won the European bantamweight title and the vacant WBC International super-bantamweight title. A year later he won the WBO featherweight title when he beat Steve Robinson via TKO in the eighth round. In 1997, he won the IBF featherweight title when he beat Tom Johnson via TKO in the eighth round. In 1999, he won the WBC featherweight title when he beat César Soto. In 2001, he lost his undefeated record when he was defeated by Marco Antonio Barrera. He returned to the ring a year later, for what turned out to be his final boxing match, beating the European champion Manuel Calvo for the IBO featherweight title.

Hamed was known for his unconventional boxing antics and spectacular ring entrances which included entering the ring on a flying carpet, a lift, and a palanquin, as well as re-enacting the video of Michael Jackson's Thriller, and wearing a Halloween mask. He was also known for his front somersault over the top rope into the ring, his highly athletic and hard-hitting southpaw boxing style, and formidable one-punch knockout power, having finished his career with a knockout-to-win percentage of 84%. With his cocky persona and high-profile bouts he was a prominent figure in 1990s British pop culture, while Sean Ingle in The Guardian writes, "in his prime, Hamed was a global superstar". A headliner on both sides of the Atlantic, Dan Rafael of ESPN writes, "one of the biggest stars in the sport, the guy sold out arenas before his opponent was even named." Hamed, who is of Yemeni heritage, is credited with inspiring British Asian involvement in boxing.

In 2016, ESPN ranked Hamed at number 22 on its list of the top 25 fighters, pound for pound, of the last 25 years. World Boxing, a sister publication of The Ring magazine, ranked Hamed the 11th greatest British boxer of all time, and Gareth A. Davies of The Telegraph ranked him 10th. The Ring also ranked Hamed the 46th greatest puncher of all time.

Trophies

Milestones

Former Youth Teams