WBO and Lineal Featherweight Champion The Ring No. 1 Ranked Featherweight
IBF[1] No. 1 Ranked Featherweight The Ring No. 4 Ranked Featherweight
Result
Hamed defeated Bungu by 4th round KO
Naseem Hamed vs. Vuyani Bungu, billed as Capital Punishment, was a professional boxing match contested on 11 March 2000, for the WBO and Lineal featherweight championship.[2] The bout took place at the London Olympia.
Background
In his previous fight, Naseem Hamed defeated César Soto to add the WBC featherweight championship to his own WBO version of the title.[3] Hamed had originally hoped to keep both titles, however, at the time the WBO was not a major sanctioning body. As a result, the WBC refused to allow Hamed to hold his title with the WBO's, and he was subsequently stripped of the honor in January 2000.[4][5] Shortly after Hamed's victory over Soto, his team began negotiations with former WBO super-bantamweight champion Junior Jones to be Hamed's next opponent for a scheduled March 11 fight.[6][7] Jones, however, refused the terms of the contract and the fight was ultimately cancelled in January 2000.[8] Only a week after the cancellation of the Hamed–Jones fight, it was announced that Hamed and then-current IBF super bantamweight champion Vuyani Bungu would meet instead.[9] The fight between Hamed and Bungu had been over a year in the making,[10] as both fighters had been two of the most successful champions in their respective weight classes. Hamed had been the WBO featherweight champion for over four years and Bungu had held the IBF super bantamweight title for over five years. Hamed, who was coming off of three consecutive lackluster performances, having gone the full 12-round distance with Wayne McCullough and César Soto and going deep into the fight with Paul Ingle before finally knocking Ingle out in the 11th round, promised that he would be "back to my best".[11] Hamed also predicted a knockout or stoppage though he could not say when during the fight it would happen.[12]
The fight
The fight marked a resurgence for Hamed, as he asserted control over Bungu throughout the match. Despite Bungu's attempts at aggression, Hamed employed a combination of jabs and impactful punches to secure dominance in the first three rounds. In the fourth round, Hamed delivered a powerful left hand that resulted in Bungu being knocked down. Although Bungu made an effort to rise, he was unable to beat the referee's 10-count, leading to Hamed's knockout victory at 1:38 of the fourth round.[13]
