Naseem Hamed almost had me believing him.

He had built up an air of invincibility around himself and his super-confident approach to the fight with Mexican Marco Antonio Barrera had him declaring "There's only one winner and you're looking at him" as he weighed-in at the MGM Grand in Las Vegas.

Two thousand of the Prince's fans believed in him and made the trip to the States to watch him collect his fifth belt.

Unfortunately, all that glitters is not gold as those who have visited Las Vegas would testify and now the Sheffield-based fighter's image is rather tarnished.

There was no disgrace in losing to Barrera, who is tough, skillful and can take a punch as well as dish them out with pin-point accuracy.

But where does that leave Naz now?

What his fans want is to see a re-match. Maybe this defeat was a one-off. As he says, Ali lost but came back to rule the world.

If he doesn't get the re-match, and the victory, then the Americans who all along have been sceptical of his talent and his claims to greatness will have been proved right and I for one don't want that to happen.

Last weekend was great for sporting action and, if you had all the correct satellite channels, the only thing you needed to exercise was the digits of your right hand as you hopped from one major event to another.

The Grand National at Aintree was a thriller although the Racing Post believed it should never have been run.

By the final fences, with just Richard Guest on Red Marauder and Tim Murphy on Smarty still running, it looked less of a race than an exercise in survival.

Each fence was approached with a collective intake of breath at Aintree, and followed by a sigh of relief as the two horses got over the hurdles.

Personally I had money on Brave Highlander and mixed emotions as I saw the race unfold. I had volunteered to travel down to Findon should Brave Highlander come home first.

But, I had also lined up my seat in a Bexhill pub for a Sunday afternoon of football with Spurs versus Arsenal followed by Liverpool and Wycombe on the menu.

Fearing that Brave Highlander was capable of ruining my Sunday afternoon fun, I quickly put cash on an each way bet and counted myself a winner whatever happened.

Mind you, when I saw Brave Highlander still in the hunt with just a few fences left, and the field narrowed to six, I started thinking about the cash and a Sunday excursion.

However, a loose horse did for the Sussex runner, Unsinkable Boxer, Blowing Wind and Papillon at the very next fence and my Sunday entertainment was safe although I was a poorer man.