Thomas Niedermueller - Bongarts/Getty Images
Either Marco Huck or Alexander Povetkin will face Hasim Rahman later this year. Yippee. (Photo by Thomas Niedermueller/Bongarts/Getty Images)
Hasim Rahman will get an entirely undeserved shot at the WBA "regular" (paper) heavyweight title, sometime in the frame of 120 days after the February 25 bout between trinketholder Alexander Povetkin and Marco Huck.
Rahman, 39, was already the mandatory challenger and he and promoter Greg Cohen raised a bit of a stink about the Povetkin vs Huck fight recently, so the WBA met with Cohen and a rep from Sauerland Event and worked out a deal.
This is bogus on top of bogus, as Rahman (50-7-2, 41 KO) hasn't been a legitimate top heavyweight in seven years, and in his last fight came in at a grotesque 284 pounds on the scales (or about 50 pounds over his peak weight) to defeat Galen Brown last June, and just looked physically shot to all hell in the sixth round TKO win.
I guess a string of wins over the likes of Brown, Marcus McGee, Damon Reed, Shannon Miller and Clinton Boldridge is good enough to "earn a world title shot" these days.
The last time Rahman was on the major stage, he was a replacement opponent against Wladimir Klitschko in December 2008, when Povetkin ducked Klitschko for the first time. Rahman was throttled and mercifully stopped in seven, not even remotely competitive in the fight.
0 recs | 17 comments
Exactly which of those pathetic fights was the title eliminator?
Brickhaus - January 23, 2012 via mobile
None of them, as best I can tell. And none were for any regional belts or anything either.
Scott Christ - January 23, 2012
Also
Maybe it’s just an odd angle, but from that photo it looks like Huck might actually still be the naturally larger man.
Brickhaus - January 23, 2012 via mobile
But is Povetkin ready for Rahman?!
He may need more experience to prepare himself for this potential task at hand.
Kory Kitchen - January 23, 2012
I know. Everybody seems to forget that Rahman is 1 and 1 with Lennox Lewis.
After this fight Povetkin could move to Russia and be the heavyweight version of Lebedev and compile a sequence of wins against Riddick Bowe, Holyfield and…is Oliver McCall still about?
Eoin_not_ian - January 23, 2012
Yeah, I remember those fights with Lewis; .Rahman prime years back when Clinton was president.
How guys like Rahman and Rainman keep getting shots is beyond my comprehension.
DPlainview - January 23, 2012
He now don’t take cheap shots at Rahman like that. When he beat Lewis in 2001 George Bush was in the first year of his first term. C’mon man!
Kory Kitchen - January 23, 2012
That’s right………need to brush up on my President history.
I apologize to Bill if he reads these boards……………which I’m sure he does.
DPlainview - January 23, 2012
excellent point!!
Radu - January 23, 2012
…meant for Kory above
Radu - January 23, 2012
Winner will beat Rahman
Boss Man - January 23, 2012
Gutsy call.
Nick_ - January 23, 2012
gutsier call would be what round will Rahman get KTFO
Sammlung - January 23, 2012
I can’t pinpoint which round, but with or without Teddy Atlas in Povetkin’s corner, it won’t be “deep waters”.
KidSleez - January 23, 2012
He’ll probably just get a referee stoppage for covering up and not throwing anything.
Scott Christ - January 24, 2012
Damn….I used to think the HW division wasnt as bad as ppl said…..but yeah, it is.
Shitali Klitschko - January 23, 2012 via mobile
That's a gnarly looking middle knuckle on Povetkin's hand.
Im_a_fun_haver - January 24, 2012
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