Hamid Mateen, Hard Luck Light Heavyweight Taking On All Comers
By Robert Brizel, Head Real Combat Media Correspondent
Without a promoter in your corner who sponsors you and moves you, it’s hard for a talented and hard working fighter to actually win a fight he actually wins. This is because the house always favors the promoter’s fighter. very often the promoter’s fighter wins or draws fights when in reality they deserved to lose big time.
Hamid Abdul-Mateen, 35, is the younger brother of the late United States and World Cruiserweight champion Ernest M-16 Mateen who was killed by his wife in a domestic dispute in the Fall of 2012. Hamid’s brother M-16, who had worked his corner, sadly is no longer there.
Hamid, it can be told, has fought good quality opposition in recent memory, rather than fight stiffs. Mateen, whose record is 3-4-2 in nine pro bouts between 2010 and 2013, has lost decisions to unbeaten Stivens Bujaj (pro debut), unbeaten Lavarn Harvell (split decision), unbeaten Travis Peterkin (lost decision), and 11-1 Irish Joe Smith Jr. ( lost decision). Mateen appeared to beat Harvell but did not get the split decision on the cards. Against Smith, Mateen lost the first two rounds and was down in the second, but appeared to win the last four rounds with good foot movement and working his jab from the outside. Again, Mateen did not get the scorecards.
Speaking with Mateen after the boxing card at Resorts World Casino Aqueduct Racetrack last weekend, Mateen seemed genuinely appreciative of the attention and interest in his career. He also stated he did not believe his brother had been killed in self-defense. “Why would a pro boxer of my brother’s ability have to hit somebody with the butt of a gun as they say. He could have just hit them with his hands. It doesn’t make any sense,” Mateen noted about the self-defense ruling which resulted in Mateen’s wife, who pulled the trigger, never being charged with a crime.
At 35 years old, Mateen is unlikely to be the next Bernard Hopkins, Bob Foster, Michael Spinks, or Archie Moore of the light heavyweight division. With only one win in his last six outings (1-3-2), Mateen is a hard luck fighter, one of many who go the distance without a promoter, and almost never get the decision. Still, Mateen strikes you as one of the fighters for whom boxing has done a great deal, keeping him away from trouble on those mean streets of Bedford-Stuyvesant Brooklyn where he grew up. As the song by the Spinners goes, it’s a mean world, Sweet Sadie.
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