‘Prince’ Nasseem Hamed has stated that he ‘never officially retired’, but nevertheless fought his last professional fight on May 18, 2002, to finish his career with a 36-1-0 record, which invluded 31 knockouts. His final victory, a unanimous points decision over unheralded Spaniard Manuel Calvo at the London Arena, Millwall, gave him the vacant IBO world featherweight title, but was a low-key finale for the flamboyant, showboating southpaw, who had been a force majuere in the divison throughout the nineties.
Born in Sheffield, Yorkshire in the North of England on February 12, 1974, Hamed made successful professional debut, as a flyweight, at Mansfield Leisure Centre on April 14, 1992, knocking out Ricky Beard after 2:36 of the second round. Thereafter, he progressed through the ranks, knocking out all bar one of his first eleven opponents before capturing the EBU Europen bantamweight and vacant WBC international super bantamweight titles, both at the Ponds Forge Arena in his hometown, in November and December 1994 respectively.
Mutiple featherweight world championships soon followed. On September 30, 1995, Hamed beat local fighter Steve Robinson, by eighth-round technical knockout, at Cardiff Arms Park to win the WBO world featherweight title. On February 8, 1997, he beat American Tom Johnson, in similar fashion, at the London Arena to win the IBF world featherweight title and, on October 22, 1999, beat Mexican Cesar Solo, by unanimous decision, at the Joe Louis Arena in Detroit to win the WBC world featherweight title.
Hamed suffered the one and only defeat of his career when challenging another Mexican, Manuel Antonio Barrera, for the vacant IBO world featherweight title at the MGM Grand in Las Vegas on April 7, 2001. He lost by unanimous decision, 115-112, 116-111, 115-112, and although he won the subsequently vacated title just over a year later, self-inflicted hand damage brought an end to the career of the once global superstar.
