THE PRINCE MAKES BOLD PREDICTION
(INSIDE BOXING) Now that Prince Naseem Hamed has committed to fight Marco Antonio Barrera on March 3, 2001 he has begun to make waves as to his greatness. At the urging of his financial backers, namely HBO Sports, Hamed has "come out of the closet" and is talking big.
Hamed claims that not only will he fight Barrera in 2001 but that later that year he will take on Erik Morales. Announcing that the only reason he forfeited the WBO featherweight title was because he wanted to fight Barrera, the Prince says he is now ready to take on all contending featherweights.
Referring to past great champions such as "Sugar" Ray Leonard, Thomas "Hit Man" Hearns and Muhammad Ali, Prince Naseem Hamed says he has now come to realize that to be considered the best you have to take on the best.
With this new found courage Hamed will also be taken to task by venturing far from the comfort of his home country of England. Mega-buck fights that HBO are interested in can only be accommodated in the boxing capital of the world. That place is the one and only Las Vegas, Nevada. Look for Hamed to vigorously attempt to have the Morales fight conducted in England. He has, as of yet, stepped onto hostile grounds in fighting any featherweight contender. The "Fear Factor" rears its ugly head.
Should Prince Naseem Hamed back up his tough talk with signed contracts to fight in Las Vegas, where the strong Mexican contingency will not allow him the comfort zone to which he has become accustomed to, victories against top notch opponents would make even his most ardent critics acknowledge his superiority in the featherweight division.
Prince Naseem Hamed will continue to talk tough. Actions speak louder than words. With no current world title under his belt, Hamed is just another of the many draws who doesn’t really want to take on the toughest in his division. He had anticipated being able to wait until the top in the division had beaten each other up and then he would step in and pick up the pieces. HBO and more importantly TVKO, the pay-per-view outlet, cannot wait.
The featherweight division’s top competitors are all looking to move up in weight. Hamed full well knew this and had been avoiding both Barrera and Morales. HBO let Hamed know that the featherweight division lacks any interest and would be withholding any financial commitment. Thus newly found courage and big talk.
Claiming his detractors would doubt his abilities even if he were to knock out King Kong, Hamed was obviously referring to the 1939 version of Kong. He would probably be interested in taking on Faye Ray if he could get away with it!
Prince Naseem Hamed was quite content on the "senior tour" fighting the likes of the once great Kevin Kelly, as long as there was no complaint from HBO.
Those days have seemingly come to an end. Soon we shall see what the Prince is truly all about.