Naseem Hamed makes his long-awaited return to the ring this Saturday against Manuel Calvo for the vacant IBO featherweight title insisting confidence won't be a problem. Hamed suffered the first defeat of his professional career against Mexico's Marco Antonio Barrera in April 2001 and claims he has learnt his lessons from the defeat.
He said, "My confidence level is sky-high. Directly after the loss I was in the right frame of mind, it did not affect me in any way whatsoever. I took the defeat very well. Mentally I was very, very strong directly after the fight and even more so now because I've put in the training for five months solid. There have been better fighters than me that have losses on their record, that's what I've learnt."
He continued, "I know exactly what I did wrong (against Barrera). A lot of it is in the mind before the fight and what I had my mind set on doing. I won't do that again and will give my mind a lot of room to adjust. I was set on one thing in that fight and will never do that again. It's the last time you'll see me fight like that. I'm trying to bring back a bit of the younger me."
Filed by Johnny Proby
