| By Paul Upham:
The first professional loss for any boxer is hard, but when you
have been undefeated for 32 fights over nearly six years, defeat
can be a difficult thing to accept. For Nader Hamdan, his first
career loss to Sam Soliman on points over twelve rounds at the
Panthers Leagues Club in Western Sydney in June was something
that will take time to get over, but will hopefully make him an
even better fighter.
“It hurts when you lose,” admitted 29 year-old Hamdan.
“I though about retirement for two days. But after two days,
I wanted to fight again. I had a good talk to Sam and he has promised
me a rematch somewhere down the line. We had a good talk and he
is a great guy. I thanked him for the opportunity for the fight.”
Sitting down and analysing the loss has led Hamdan to some important
decisions.
“It was a good wake up call because after 32 wins from
32 fights, you start to think you can beat anyone and you take
shortcuts,” he said. “I haven’t been doing enough
and I have got away with it for so long. It all came out last
fight.”
After fighting almost exclusively at junior middleweight and
working his way to the WBC No.2 position, Hamdan had been struggling
with the weight and believes the jump to middleweight against
Soliman was still the right move despite the loss.
“I was going to try to go back to junior middleweight,
but now I’m not,” he said. “I’m not going
to make junior middleweight any more. I just can’t make
the weight. I am a middleweight now.”
One of the areas of improvement that Hamdan 32-1 (15) is already
working on is his conditioning and strength, adding renown Olympic
sport fitness coach Dick Caine to his team.
“I’m doing a lot of work with Dick Caine. He is my
new running trainer and strength trainer,” he said. “I
have known him for a little while. He has trained over 20 world
champions in swimming and triathlons. He has a lot of experience
and we had a good talk one day after my last fight. I told him
what I had been doing and a lot of things have to be changed.
I have to train properly and he’s just basically been working
me hard now.”
FULL
STORY by PAUL
UPHAM & PIC AT SECONDS OUT
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