‘The Hagler vs Hearns of featherweight boxing’

When Frank Warren – in the process of becoming the first British promoter to stage at fight at New York’s iconic Madison Square Garden – revealed the date of December 19, 1997 for the occasion of Naseem Hamed’s US debut, he was told by none other than Bob Arum: “You’ll do your money.” 

Brooklyn’s Kevin Kelley was confirmed as the challenger to Hamed, making the ninth defence of his WBO featherweight title, but eight days before Christmas in the city perhaps more consumed by the festive season than any other in the world – and promoting not only a British fighter but a featherweight in a culture more interested in heavier weight divisions and one of Yemeni descent – Arum believed that Warren had overestimated Hamed’s appeal.

Broadcaster HBO, then the most influential force in boxing, had been instrumental in attempting to make the entertaining Hamed – a natural showman – the latest figure to transcend his sport, and their conviction in his potential was such that they invested in a 50x20ft billboard in Times Square to lead the seven-figure marketing campaign surrounding his latest fight. In a city, and indeed world, yet to be transformed by the horrific terrorist attacks of September 11, Hamed’s heritage made him a favourite among the American-Arab population in New York – a population that had rarely had such a hero. 

Hamed was widely considered the world’s leading featherweight and he remained popular in the UK. The time had therefore ultimately come for him to attempt to conquer the US.  

“It resonated,” said Larry Merchant, then of HBO, which had previously been reluctant to invest in the featherweight division. “People I wouldn’t have imagined would have any interest in boxing had an interest in Prince Naseem.

“The cadences and responses he would give to the media’s questions echoed [Muhammad] Ali. He was really smart, and you put that together with a guy who has his style – a kind of improvisational style of movement – followed by knockouts… He was smart and tough at the same time, and strong.”

“It was in your face,” said Lou DiBella, once an executive at HBO and today an independent promoter. “He was this kid – he’s this little kid; not this big tall figure; not this imposing heavyweight; this little kid from Yemen – he was fun to be around. He knew he was an entertainer. He didn’t care so much if people were rooting against him – as long as they wanted to see him. He understood how compelling he was.”

In 1993 Kelley was involved in the first HBO main event at 126lbs or below since Lupe Pintor-Wilfredo Gomez in 1982. As Hamed’s opponent he was paid a career-high $450,000; the champion had signed a six-fight agreement with HBO that would pay him $12m, significantly above and beyond any of his divisional rivals. A 16-year-old Paulie Malignaggi – whose future opponent Ricky Hatton beat Robert Alvarez on the undercard and who bought a $27 ticket to attend – was even among those whose attention had been grabbed.

“Kevin Kelley had a big brash personality, and when he was a young kid he was doing everything possible to market himself,” according to DiBella. “I [also] remember hanging out with [Hamed], and he’d be like, ‘I just want to stop and say hi to a friend’. We’d go down these stairs to a night club, and Ronnie Wood of the Rolling Stones would be sitting there with a bunch of guys from Blur. [Hamed] would walk in and the room would turn around – he was this featherweight who was commanding worldwide attention.”

“I see an article written on this guy,” Kelley, then 30 and who had a friendly relationship with Hamed, recalled. “All these weird [punching] angles and all this stuff. ‘Who is this guy? He’s making all this money. We got to go to England to challenge this guy before anybody else get him.’ A closed mouth don’t get fed.”

Said “The Prince”, then 23, and who predicted pre-fight that he would stop Kelley between rounds four and six: “When I say I’m ready to conquer America, I mean I’m ready to conquer America. The statements I make, I don’t want people to take them lightly, because whatever I say is what I want to do, and I’m planning to be a legend. I’m destined for greatness.”

After an almost unrivalled billing, when the relaxed Hamed was finally stood opposite Kelley in the ring at The Garden listening to the referee Benjy Esteves Jnr’s pre-fight instructions he couldn’t resist squaring up to his opponent. Kelley, appearing tense, repeatedly hit himself in the face; when the opening bell rang the first punch Hamed threw was a wild right hook that missed. That he was perhaps too relaxed and too confident was demonstrated by him then being knocked down when Kelley landed a big right hand on his chin.

Kelley hurt his fellow southpaw with another right hand in the second, leading to Hamed touching down with his gloves and therefore suffering a second knockdown inside two rounds. Instead of tying up the bigger, rangier Kelley he then fought back, and he landed a right hand that then dropped his opponent.

At the end of the third, in which they continued to trade, Kelley’s trainer Phil Borgia prophetically told him: “If you don’t use your jab, and you don’t move your head, we’re going to run into difficulties, and I don’t want that.” The respected Brendan Ingle, speaking to Hamed, said: “Don’t get in a war with him. Pick him off; you’ll gradually break him with your jab.” Both, ultimately, were ignored.

It was in the fourth when Hamed dropped Kelley heavily with another wild right hand, but if he sensed his chance to finish his opponent he was punished when Kelley threw a right that meant Hamed’s gloves again touched down. Again under assault as they continued to trade, a powerful left then dropped Kelley so heavily he returned to his feet narrowly after the count of 10, and he made no complaints when Esteves Jnr therefore waved the action over after two minutes and 27 seconds. 

The four-round shootout, it was later revealed, had been watched live in 2.5m households across the US. 

“The game plan was to have him quit on his stool,” Borgia later said. “The plan was to beat him so bad that he didn’t want to come out of his corner. Not even to knock him out cold. To make him quit. We saw how easy it was to hurt him. It was a great fight while it lasted.”

“The right guy won, because that ushered in a new generation,” said DiBella. “There was a Hamed era, in boxing. It wasn’t that long, but man, was it intense while it was going on.”

“What we just saw was the [Marvin] Hagler-[Tommy] Hearns of featherweight fighting,” said Merchant. “We have never seen a fight like this in the featherweight division, on this level.”