Prince Naseem Hamed weighs in on Jake Paul’s boxing career

If Prince Naseem Hamed were fighting today, there is little doubt he would have crossed swords — verbally at least — with some of boxing’s YouTube-era personalities.

Such was his extrovert character, Hamed talked the talk and, more often than not, walked the walk in a career that dazzled throughout the 1990s before fizzling out at the turn of the century. He was box office, unapologetically loud and entirely comfortable living on the edge of spectacle and substance.

Modern boxing continues to produce genuine world-class talent in the form of Oleksandr Usyk, Naoya Inoue and Dmitry Bivol. Yet influencer boxing has also carved out a permanent space in the sport, showing few signs of disappearing any time soon.

Few figures have driven that boom more than Jake Paul. Between November 2024 and December 2025, Paul fought a 58-year-old Mike Tyson, a faded Julio Cesar Chavez Jr and then gambled against a modern-day fighting machine in former heavyweight champion Anthony Joshua.

Paul lasted five rounds before being brutally stopped in the sixth, leaving the ring with a broken jaw and a harsh lesson in elite-level boxing.

With influencer boxing seemingly here to stay, it is easy to imagine the Hamed of the 1990s having plenty to say about it. Memories of his own era have resurfaced during his press tour for the biopic Giant, which charts his life and achievements alongside trainer Brendan Ingle.

Speaking to the High Performance podcast, Hamed gave a measured assessment of Paul’s impact on the sport.

“It shows that the sport is being taken in a different direction. It takes away the beauty of the sport and the noble art of the sport because of somebody just coming in and earning more money than all of the world champions. But that’s what’s meant for him. He created that platform. I give it up for him, no problem.”

However, Hamed made clear he has little interest in watching such events, preferring instead to devote his attention to boxing’s elite.

“I’ve got no interest in it. I didn’t watch him fight Mike Tyson. I didn’t watch Andrew Tate’s last fight. I want to watch unbelievable fighters that really want to win, that want a legacy in boxing that means everything to them. I want to see these guys fight. I want to see these guys compete.”

For a man whose own career blended showmanship with substance, Hamed’s message was clear: spectacle may sell, but legacy still matters most.