Naseem Hamed - Legacy and Impact

Legacy and Impact

Hamed's boxing career is seen by many experts in the sport as one of unfulfilled 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.

Hamed was referenced by legendary 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.

British boxing pundit Steve Bunce stated on the 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 more famous The Ring Magazine, ranked Hamed as the 11th greatest British boxer of all-time. The Ring also ranked Hamed as the 46th greatest puncher of all-time. Journalist Daniel Fletcher, in a 10-year anniversary commemoration of the end of Hamed's career, "Requiem for Naseem", referred to Hamed as "the most talented fighter to ever live", one of history's première featherweights and British boxers, and that while his career ended prematurely at the age of 28, he still managed to dominate his weight class for six years and boast some formidable achievements.