Simply Flawless: Barrera vs Hamed

It was April 7, 2001 when Barrera showed us what he was truly made of, pure guts and raw talent that you’re only born with, it was this very day that he dismantled the sensation that was Prince Naseem Hamed in 12 wonderful rounds of great action.

Coming into the fight, Barrera was 3 and half to 1 underdog, Prince was chosen to win the fight by 28 out of 30 boxing journalists, no one gave Barrera credit, but I did. It was this very day that Barrera silenced all of his critics, he gave his fans something to brag about, and he finally humbled the wild and cocky Hamed in a championship fight for the vacant IBO Featherweight title. Who’s laughing now?

Throughout his career, Hamed was a sensational puncher with outstanding reflexes and a decent chin, I mean this guy would blast through his opponents like nothing, he could been outgunned in power, or at a clear disadvantage when it came to boxing skills, but it didn’t matter, he’d beat you someway, somehow.

From the opening round, Barrera asserted himself, he was using angles and his off rhythm jab to get himself in charge as quick as possible, Hamed spent most of the first round circling Barrera and trying to get in close to land his bombs. As so many fighters have came out boxing with Hamed, they usually find themselves on the end of his punches where they feel them most, but Barrera is moving away from Hamed’s power and is comfortable boxing. During all of the pre-fight antics, Barrera was extremely convincing to the fact that he will attack, attack and attack Hamed, and so far he’s done everything but, its a boxing match at center ring. During the first couple rounds a confused Hamed is still searching for his openings, cleary confident in his power to take Barrera out at any point and time, but without success or assertiveness he could find yourself searching all night against a man like Barrera.

Nothing Hamed tries is working against Barrera, as soon as Hamed throws Barrera comes right back with something, landing clean hard shots when in close or out at range, the point is, he’s landing. Some fighters have had some success when boxing with Hamed, but it was their demise when deciding to abandon their game-plan to try and make a statement, that’s when they’d get nailed, but Barrera was boxing, and boxing smart.

The fight would look like a carbon copy as it got deeper into the rounds, Hamed still confused and still did not have an answer for anything Barrera threw, ever trick or rough house tactic that Hamed attempted was capitalized by Barrera’s quickness and precise punches to punctuate his awareness of the fight. It was a perfect plan of attack for Barrera, he tricked the Hamed camp into believing he would trade, but instead he came out boxing, but as the fight progressed, Barrera would begin to brawl, it was this very plan of attack that was drowning Hamed in frustration of his inability to land anything significant.

Round 9, Hamed is way behind on the scorecard, it is no doubt that the fight has slipped within his reach if he cannot deliver a knockout, but with having to assert himself more could have also lead to him being knocked out, but he had to do something becaue Barrera has seized the moment. Hamed finally starting opening up with his punches, after he had been only throwing one punch at a time, but still then, Barrera was able to turn Hamed’s aggression against him as he countered every shot that was headed towards him, nothing major landed for the desperate Hamed. It was a amazing display of executing your fight-plan to the tee, Barrera was exposing Hamed’s improvisational style in every way shape or form. In round 12, Hamed missed a wild looping punch that Barrera used to slam him into a turnbuckle, and the crowd roared in appreciation. The fight ended, and so did Hamed’s career.

It was a great, great fight