Prime Morales vs prime Hamed, 122 or 126.

Morales has a big height/reach advantage, and is a better pure boxer. But he liked to rumble. And Naz was faster by a good bit.

Who wins?

I'd take Morales by UD. Thinking about what Morales did to Pac in the first fight, I came to that conclusion.

Good point, but that was at 130 lbs - a weight Pacquiao hadn't quite adjusted to yet. Hamed was also much less predictable than Pacquiao was in that first fight.

Morales by UD

Morales kicks his ass.

Morales stops him late after giving him a beating. Erik is just too much man for him.

I think everyone is underrating Hamed. Morales might win but he certainly doesn't kick his ass.

When Naz fought Barrera, he was disinterested and hadn't trained at all. He spent the whole night looking for one big shot & getting outboxed.

a) Anyone who's followed his career knows that's not who he was as a prime fighter..

Barrera was careful not to mix it up with Naz. Morales would almost certainly choose to mix it up at some point.

Hamed would be taking a considerable step up in fighting Erik and I believe he was too tough in combination with the rest of his attributes. I think JMM also kicks his ass.

Morales is one of my all-time favorite fighters, but I would be more willing to put money on JMM than Morales in this fight.

I really think this fight is a toss-up.. it seems like the Hamed that everyone remembers is the lazy, rockstar version who got outclassed by a Barrera he didn't train for and who everyone at the time thought was going to brawl with him.

i agree....

Make this fight at whatever weight you want, whatever point in Hameds career you want, Erik by stoppage.

Your talking about a serious granite beard and a guy that reacts to getting hit like a cat thrown in cold water. Bad matchup for Naseem. Worse than the Barrera beating. Erik was much more cruel and sadistic. He probably poses over Hamed after crumpling him with a nasty body shot.

I'm not willing to say Morales stops or completely dominates him. People forget how dangerous Hamed was. As I've said in other mm Naz threads. The man didn't suck. He countered from unorthodox angles, generated significant force with that leaping hookercut when he seemed to be out of range, and never appeared to be chiney.

I think he confuses Morales early on with his hand and footspeed, and maybe even banks a few rounds early. But Erik solves the puzzle in 3 or 4 rounds, and begins to back him up with a sustained body attack and volume punching. Nas starts getting roughed up, and uses his athleticism to survive the championship rounds.

Morales UD 8-4 or 9-3.

I liked Naz, i just skipped the 2 hour ring entrances with him being pulled by Midgets riding Unicorns.

His fights got progressively more brutal, ill give him that. Dude came to fight. I also respect that hes fast and hit hard as FUCK...... but Eriks beard would really negate a lot of what he relied on. Morales is no Kevin Kelley. You arent going to catch him with some wild looping hook or leaning off balance shot and make him hit the mat three times. At 122 i think he is one of the greatest of all time, and thats not just me being a nutrider.

He's no worse than the 2nd best of all time at 122, really. There are only a handful of guys around 122 or 126 I can see beating Morales all-time, Hamed isn't one of them.

The feeling I get on an instinctive level for this one is Morales turns it on from the opening bell, rattles the more tentative Hamed in round one, but then hits the deck in the second --- just too careless in trying to overwhelm him. He's apparently unhurt, but quieter for the humbling over the next three rounds, leaving the door ajar for Hamed to steal a few stanzas.

Behind after five rounds, Morales reverts to his first-round assault, & this is where the fight begins to disintegrate --- Morales is vicious & severe, & Hamed wants the victory, but just not as much in the end. In rounds nine & ten, especially, Morales' heart & brutality rise overwhelmingly to the fore, as Hamed wanes considerably, having spent the tank in round eight, & barely taking the round for it. It's a beaten fighter who calls it in the corner as the bell sounds for round eleven.

Morales by stoppage in an at-times exciting battle. My card reads...

RD 1: 10-9 M
RD 2: 10-8 H
RD 3: 10-9 H
RD 4: 10-9 H
RD 5: 10-9 H
RD 6: 10-9 M
RD 7: 10-9 M
RD 8: 10-9 H
RD 9: 10-9 M
RD 10: 10-9 M

5-5, 95-94 in Prince Naseem's favour at the time of his corner capitulation. The Terrible One was just too much man in the end.

I don't think Morales has the type of power to stop Naz, but he would beat him clean.

Morales is the one guy out of the Mexican greats that Hamed had a chance of beating, simply because of his power and Morales' tendency to go to war and take shots, but I think he'd have enough range and power of his own and would win over 12 exciting rounds in a fight that's not that close.

Great fight. Morales rarely had the discipline Barrera did and I don't care how good his chin was...you get into exchanges with Hamed and bad things happen.

Please.

Lol i know. Morales never went down in all his wars until??!? The second Pac fight? Barrera arguibly gave him a flash knockdown, but it wasnt called, his glove just brushed the canvas.


Gimme a break, you guys can wax poetic if you want, fuck Hameds power. Morales probably takes dumps that hurt him worse than some off balance bullshit like that.

Pac hits harder than Hamed, hits with just as much handspeed, and it took him how many rounds of accumulated punishment to put the man on his butt? 22? 20? You telling me Hamed makes it that far? Pac fought a career defining fight in his first loss to Erik, fought another one to beat him in the second fight. No way Hamed stands up to the rain of pain Pac took to land his back.

Hamed gets beaten down and out. The only question is whether Erik has enough pop in his gloves to stop the show early on or later. I dont think he knocks Morales down, or hurts him at all. I think he gets his shit pushed in times infinity, then probably gets fat and runs someone over driving like a douchebag. But thats just speculation on my part.

I disagree that Pac hit harder for a single shot at 26. I'm not even saying Hamed necessarily wins, but he could have hurt Morales. Guty Espadas hurt him, had him all but out on his feet, in a fight where Morales was gifted a win...and Espadas couldn't punch much. Hamed, at his best, tagged guys with stuff they never saw and stopped some sturdy dudes. Bungu had never been close to stopped prior; Johnson never stopped prior; Medina never run out of the ring like that prior (though stopped twice).

It would have been an interesting fight and fun. Barrera beat Hamed by fighting as controlled a fight as one could ask, and that was at the end of Hamed when he'd lost a step. He never let Hamed get off. Morales wouldn't have done that

Hamed's prime is as gay or gayer than Tyson's. Morales was a better boxer than MAB and smart enough and tough enough to have his way. Being able to punch is one thing, being able to ko an elite fighter is another entirely. Espadas? Really? Please bro.

EM would respect Hamed's power enough but he'd definitely still break his foot off in his ass.

Im not sure what you think Hamed did with his power that Pacquiao couldn't have done, not that he even fought EM at 26lbs.

Morales was not a smarter fighter than Barrera and his defence was pretty average. Its not out of the realm of reality that he could be caught and get all macho and go toe-to-toe. I have a hard time picking against Morales here, but like I said it could have been a fight. Something he never had a chance of making vs. Barrera or if he had fought Marquez.

Espadas did beat Morales. That was a bad decision.

That's all I'm trying to say. Morales had a tendency to fight wars with guys others didn't. It was in his DNA to war. He probably could have outgutted Hamed anyways, but it would have made for fine viewing.

Just because Erik could fight down to his level of opposition at times hardly means that Hamed have a good shot against him.

I like Erik Morales and everything, but pretending like Hamed was just some piece of shit that couldn't fight is pretty stupid.

Let's not carry this "We like fighters who come forward, take shots on the chin and have a really big cock" thing into the realm of logic.

I disagree if only because I think Barrera rated higher at 22. I think there are well more than a handful who beat him at 26.

Has nothing to do with that. You point me to the fight where Hamed's bullshit tactics worked against a real elite fighter. It's got nothing to do with him sucking, dude was overrated.

I'd have to know which "bullshit tactics" you're talking about to even respond to that.

Point to everyone else where it took only a 'real' elite fighter to suck Morales into a war? Chi? Not so much. Espadas? Not so much. McCullough? Not so much. Ayala? Not so much. Chavez? Not so much. Dude would war with just about everyone...it was endearing.

Hamed's tactics worked against everyone he fought for half a decade, including just about everyone who wore a belt at 26 and some solid guys from below. He pancaked Bungu and Bungu was right there on the cusp of elite at 22 if he wasn't outright.

Morales would get caught. He might get knocked down. But we all know he'd get up. He'd beat Naz' ass.

Let's not forget how many times Hamed tasted canvas against lesser foes. How is HE going to respond when he's getting clipped on the chin with right hands? I'd guess with arms, legs and chin flying through the air, as always. He was no defensive genius either on the high levels.

None of those guys who wore a belt were in Morales' class.

I don't see any reason to believe Naseem Hamed would come out on top in a war with Erik Morales. Nor do I see him finishing the job if he did have him hurt.

Really? Im shocked. He fucked around in the ring and in general just depended on his physical gifts too much. Crap balance, leaning backward like a tard, hands down. Might be intimidating against Ingle, not going to work against Morales.



What you are missing here is that Erik would show Hamed's power more respect than he would Chi, or McCullough. If you are serious, that's interesting I completely disagree.

I agree with Prod that Hamed might hurt him, though the reverse is also true. The odds of him beating Erik though are not that good. Hamed's tactics worked on lesser fighters sure but history has proven that type of thing can be misleading.

Hamed tasted canvas against lesser foes, but was never seriously hurt on any of those occasions. It was almost always because he was completely off balance from moving or throwing at a wild angle. He was more durable than most people have given him credit for post-Barrera.

Hamed would be in a world of trouble the second he hurt Morales.




He was plenty hurt against Augie Sanchez and Kevin Kelley. I'd agree he was durable and had great recuperative powers. But to say he was never seriously hurt is quite false.

I pretty much agree with this. However, knockdowns count. When Naz got hit on the chin, more times than not he didn't know how to handle it. He would get hit on the chin against Morales.

Hamed was hit on the chin flush plenty of times and every fight he got knocked down in, his opponent wound up getting KTFO. So I don't see how you can make the argument that he couldn't handle getting hit or knocked down.

I don't see how you could have possibly read anything that made you post that.

I wish Hamed was half as good as this thread makes him out to be. He might still be fighting.

You've seen him fight. Describe what happens when he gets hit.

I read better than you. See prod's post -



Not really sure what you're referring to. My point is that in pretty much every single fight where we saw Naz decked, the other guy wound up getting KTFO.

You're an incredible tool. But I do agree that Hamed recovered well from being hurt.

True. It's pretty hard to count on the KO when Erik Morales is standing across the ring though.

I'd say that's a fair assessment. I might not bet on Hamed to win, BUT you can't discount the guy's power. Bad balance, hubris, dirty...but he could hit. And Morales could be hurt. Not easily, but it happened against a few guys Hamed probably hit harder than.

I'd still pick Morales to tough it out at earn a UD, if nothing else.



Maybe I'm just disagreeing about the definition of "bullshit tactics" or something, because I'd agree he relied on physical gifts and what he thought he was in his own little world, than actual skills and style.

As far as intimidation, I doubt Morales was intimidated by Pacquiao in the second and third fights either, but he still lost both.

i dont think hamed would be willing to go to war with morales....the second that morales would start landing on him he'd start holding...clowning...running away....hamed had power....but he wouldnt stand in front of wayne mcculough and bang with him.....why would he do it with morales...i think morales beats him....