 | |||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Date | December 19, 1997 | ||||||||||||||||||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Venue | Madison Square Garden in New York, New York | ||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Title(s) on the line | WBO Featherweight Championship | ||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Tale of the tape | |||||||||||||||||||||||||
| |||||||||||||||||||||||||
Naseem Hamed vs. Kevin Kelley was a professional boxing match contested on December 19, 1997 for the WBO featherweight championship.
After defeating Jose Badillo in October 1997, it was announced that British sensation Naseem Hamed would make his long-awaited American debut just two months later to take former WBC featherweight champion Kevin Kelley. [1] Hamed at the time was undefeated as a professional, sporting a 28–0 record and had become well regarded for his knockout power, with all but two of his fights having been won by way of knockout. Due to both his fighting style and flamboyant personality, Hamed had also quickly become one boxing's most popular fighters and had become the highest paid featherweight in the sport earning over $12 million in purses and endorsements the year prior and HBO, who was to air the bout on its World Championship Boxing program, had both signed Hamed to an exclusive six fight, $12 million contract to air his fights [2] and spent $1 million on a publicity campaign to promote Hamed prior to his fight with Kelley. [3] Kelley had lost the WBC featherweight title in early 1995 but had gone undefeated in 8 fights since and had picked up the less-regarded WBU version of the title in February 1996. Hamed angered Kelley, a New York native, with his trash-talk, claiming "I could have brought Kevin Kelley to my own backyard and beat him up there. But I didn't want to do that. I wanted to come to his own backyard and bring him down in front of his own crowd." Kelley responded "The first round I'm going straight for that mouth, I've been saving up everything for the bell."
Hamed, who was also known for his flashy ring entrances in his native England, made a lengthy entrance for his US debut where he danced behind a screen to Will Smith's "Men in Black" before entering the arena to Red Rat's "Shelly Ann" on a fashion runway while confetti rained down from the ceiling before finally entering the ring with his trademark flip over the ropes.
The fight would become an action packed slugfest as each fighter would score three knockdowns over one another. Hamed started the fight strongly landing more punches as Kelley struggled with Hamed's unorthodox fighting style. With a minute left in the round Hamed had backed Kelley into one of the corners, however Kelley was able to catch Hamed with a leaping right hook as Hamed stepped back to send him to mat for the fight's first knockdown. Hamed was quickly able to get back to his feet and escaped the round without any further damage. Kelley began round 2 as the aggressor and scored a second knockdown over Hamed after landing a left hook that dazed Hamed and made both gloves touch the canvas as Hamed attempted to hold himself up from going down. After Hamed took a standing 8 count, Kelley swarmed him in hopes of landing another knockdown and began swinging wildly as Hamed attempted to dodge his punches and side-stepped Kelley, causing Kelley to miss completely and fall to the canvas, though the referee ruled it a slip. Kelley would continue to chase the champion before Hamed countered with a straight right hand that sent Kelly down for Hamed's first knockdown of the fight. Kelly would also answer the standing 8 count and both fighters made it out of the round. After both fighters took a more cautious approach in round 3, the action would resume in the fourth round. About a minute and a half into the round Hamed landed two left hooks that sent Kelley down for the second time. Kelley again was able to continue, but Hamed continued to throw power punches at Kelley, but after Kelley countered with a right hook, Hamed's right glove again touched the canvas, officially giving Kelley his third knockdown of Hamed. After the fight resumed following the standing 8 count, Kelley looked to regain his momentum as he drove Hamed back, but Hamed would land a hard left that send Kelley down for the third time. Kelley was able to get back to his knees but was clearly hurt and could not get back to his feet as the referee reached the count of 10, giving Hamed the knockout victory at 2:27 of the fourth round.
| Weight Class | Weight | vs. | Method | Round | Time | Notes | ||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Featherweight | 126 lb | Naseem Hamed (c) | def. | Kevin Kelley | KO | 4/12 | Note 1 | |
| Super bantamweight | 122 lb | Kennedy McKinney | def. | Junior Jones (c) | TKO | 4/12 | Note 2 | |
| Welterweight | 147 lb | Michael Clark | def. | Roberto Nunez | KO | 1/8 | ||
| Heavyweight | 200+ lb | Danny Williams | def. | Derek Amos | TKO | 4/8 | ||
| Welterweight | 147 lb | Ricky Hatton | def. | Robbie Alvarez | UD | 4/4 | ||
| Light heavyweight | 175 lb | David Telesco | def. | Napoleon Pitt | UD | 6/6 | ||
^Note 1 For WBO Featherweight title.
^Note 2 For WBO Super Bantamweight title.
Guaranteed fight purses:
In the United States, the fight was watched by 2,525,000 viewers on HBO. It generated a 10.1 Nielsen rating among HBO's 25 million subscribers, significantly higher than HBO's 8.5 average boxing rating. [5] In the United Kingdom, the fight was broadcast pay-per-view on Sky Box Office. [6]
Marco Antonio Barrera Tapia is a Mexican former professional boxer who competed from 1989 to 2011. He held multiple world championships in three weight classes between 1995 and 2007, from super bantamweight to super featherweight.
Erik Isaac Morales Elvira is a Mexican former professional boxer who competed from 1993 to 2012. He is the first Mexico-born boxer in history to win world championships in four weight classes, ranging from super bantamweight to light welterweight.
Juan Manuel Márquez Méndez is a Mexican former professional boxer who competed from 1993 to 2014. He is the third Mexican boxer to become a world champion in four weight classes, having held nine world major titles from featherweight to light welterweight, including the lineal championship at lightweight.
Kevin Philip Kelley is an American former professional boxer who competed from 1988 to 2009, and held the WBC featherweight title from 1993 to 1995.
Yuriorkis Gamboa Toledano is a Cuban professional boxer. He is a former unified featherweight world champion, having held the WBA (Regular) and IBF titles between 2009 and 2011, as well as the WBA interim championship in both the super featherweight and lightweight divisions. As an amateur, he won a gold medal in the flyweight division at the 2004 Olympics, and a bronze in the featherweight division at the 2005 World Championships.
Kelly Robert Pavlik is an American former professional boxer who competed from 2000 to 2012. He won the unified WBC, WBO, Ring magazine and lineal middleweight titles by defeating Jermain Taylor in 2007, and made three successful defenses before losing them to Sergio Martínez in 2010.
Óscar Rafael Valdez Fierro Jr. is a Mexican professional boxer. He is a former world champion in two weight classes, holding the WBC super featherweight title from 2021 to 2022, and the WBO featherweight title from 2016 to 2019. As an amateur boxer, Valdez qualified for the 2008 Olympics at the age of 17 and became the first Mexican Youth World Champion. Four years later, he qualified for the 2012 Summer Olympics.
Naseem Hamed, nicknamed Prince Naseem and Naz, is a British former professional boxer who competed from 1992 to 2002. He held multiple featherweight world championships between 1995 and 2000, and reigned as lineal champion from 1998 to 2001. He also held the International Boxing Organization (IBO) featherweight title from 2002 to 2003, and the European bantamweight title from 1994 to 1995. In 2015, he was inducted into the International Boxing Hall of Fame. The Ring magazine retroactively awarded Hamed their featherweight title in 2019 to acknowledge his dominance of the division and the multiple champions he defeated; he is the only former world champion in any division thus far to receive this honour.
Miguel Ángel Berchelt Cervera is a Mexican professional boxer who held the WBC super featherweight title from 2017 to 2021.
Manny Pacquiao vs. Juan Manuel Márquez IV, billed as "Fight of the Decade", was a professional boxing match. The winner of this bout would win a commemorative belt by the WBO known as "Champion of the Decade." This was the fourth and final meeting between Pacquiao and Márquez. The bout was held on December 8, 2012, at the MGM Grand in Las Vegas, Nevada and drew 1.15 million pay-per-view buys.
Herbie Hide vs. Riddick Bowe was a professional boxing match contested on March 11, 1995, for the World Boxing Organization Heavyweight Championship. The bout took place at the MGM Grand Garden Arena in Paradise, Nevada, and was televised by HBO. Hide was making the first defense of the title he had won from Michael Bentt in a fight that resulted in Bentt suffering career ending injuries while Bowe was trying to find his way back into the world championship picture sixteen months after he lost his place as champion to Evander Holyfield. Bowe defeated Hide in the 6th round.
Lennox Lewis vs. Tommy Morrison, billed as "Laying It All on the Line", was a professional boxing match contested on October 7, 1995 for the IBC heavyweight championship.
Tommy Morrison vs. Michael Bentt, billed as "The Tulsa Shootout", was a professional boxing match contested on October 29, 1993 for the WBO Heavyweight Championship.
Marco Antonio Barrera vs. Erik Morales II, billed as For Honor and Pride, was a professional boxing match between then three-time super bantamweight and reigning lineal featherweight world champion Marco Antonio Barrera and WBC featherweight world champion Erik Morales. It took place on June 22, 2002, at the MGM Grand Garden Arena in Las Vegas, Nevada. Barrera won the contest by unanimous decision, with two judges scoring it 115-113 and the other scoring it 116-112 for Barrera.
Naseem Hamed vs. Wilfredo Vázquez was a professional boxing match contested on April 18, 1998 for the WBO and Lineal featherweight championships.
Naseem Hamed vs. Wayne McCullough, billed as "Halloween Fright Night" was a professional boxing match contested on October 31, 1998 for the WBO and Lineal featherweight championships.
Naseem Hamed vs. Paul Ingle was a professional boxing match contested on April 10, 1999 for the WBO and Lineal featherweight championships.
Naseem Hamed vs. César Soto was a professional boxing match contested on October 22, 1999, for the WBC, WBO and Lineal featherweight championships.
Naseem Hamed vs. Vuyani Bungu was a professional boxing match contested on March 11, 2000 for the WBO and Lineal featherweight championships. The bout took place at the London Olympia and the fight was billed as "Capital Punishment" due to the event being held in London, England.
Naseem Hamed vs. Augie Sanchez was a professional boxing match contested between reigning WBO featherweight champion Naseem Hamed and Augie Sanchez. The bout took place on August 19, 2000 at the Foxwoods Resort Casino in Ledyard, Connecticut.