Naz KOs Sanchez [Archives:2000/34/Front Page]

Entering the ring to a spectacle of firecrackers and flames, Hamed retained his WBO featherweight title Saturday night by stopping Augie Sanchez at 2:34 of the forth round and sending him out of the ring on a stretcher.
Sanchez launched a surprising attack in the second round and sent Hamed to the canvas three times. None was ruled a knockdown but Hamed conceded one was. Still, he laughed it off, bobbing away from Sanchez with his torso before countering in the fourth.
With Sanchez right eye swollen, Hamed hit him with a three-punch combination in the forth that sent him staggering to the floor. Sanchez tried to get up before falling back into the ropes.
Referee Michael Ortega immediately stopped the fight, and doctors swarmed the ring and loaded Sanchez onto a stretcher. He was taken to the trauma center at Backus Hospital in Norwich; Dr. Joseph Carpentieri said he probably suffered a concussion.
Hamed (35-0, 31 KOs) was a heavy favorite over the WBOs No. 7 contender, but he was hurt badly in the second round. Ortega ruled the first fall a slip, but it energized the crowd in support of Sanchez, and it began chanting Augie! Augie!
Hamed slipped again, but he was back up in a flash and connected with a left sent Sanchez staggering back to the ropes.
Sanchez (26-2, 23 KOs) came out strong again in the third, knocking Hamed around. But Hamed, bleeding from his mouth, cheek and left eye, laughed it off, bobbing away as if he was toying with the challenger.
In the third, after Sanchez slipped, Hamed kept coming and bowled him over with his legs. Early in the forth, Hamed hit Sanchez on the ground and lost a point. I have a chin and two hands, just like anyone else. He hit me and he hurt me a couple of times, but I got up and knocked him out, Said Hamed.
Boxing cognoscenti are clamoring for Hamed to fight either Erik Morales or Marco Antonio Barrera, two super bantamweights. Hamed has a mandatory title defense scheduled for November against Koko Kovacs, and plans to fight Barrera early next year.

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