[1] A fight between Naseem Hamed and Marco Antonio Barrera, which had been years in the making, was finally agreed upon in November 2000 for a March 3, 2001 date.

Barrera was the reigning WBO super bantamweight champion and was moving up to the featherweight division for the first time and, as a result, was instilled as a 3–1 underdog.

[4] In January, the planned March 3 date was scrapped and instead the fight was announced to be taken place on April 7 instead in order for both fighters to finalize their contracts.

In the 12th and final round, Barrera briefly abandoned his approach an began aggressively attacking Hamed before reverting to his previous tactic.

[8] Hamed finally announced in February 2002 that he would face unknown Spanish fighter Manuel Calvo on March 23, though the bout was later pushed back to May 18.