Hasim Rahman's shock knockout of Lennox Lewis revisited

Hasim Rahman was never supposed to hold the WBC heavyweight title, at least not when he actually won it. The Baltimore fighter started as a teenage amateur under local trainer Mack Lewis before catching the attention of Kevin Rooney, Mike Tyson's old coach, who brought him to the Catskills to mold another peek-a-boo destroyer. Rahman bolted after clashing with Rooney over style. "He wanted me to adopt Tyson's peek-a-boo style, but that wasn't for me," Rahman later said, per The Ring.

Back in Baltimore, Rahman linked up with Janks Morton, Sugar Ray Leonard's former trainer, and skipped the 1996 Olympics to turn pro under Cedric Kushner. He rattled off 29 straight wins before Don King lured him away with cash, triggering the courtroom warfare that derails heavyweight careers. Rahman stumbled to 5-2 over his next seven, losing to David Tua and Oleg Maskaev. A seventh-round stoppage of Corrie Sanders in a wild shootout salvaged his standing as a live contender, but odds makers pegged him at 20-1 when he landed the Lennox Lewis title shot in Brakpan, South Africa on April 21, 2001.

Lewis arrived underprepared after Ocean's Eleven filming

Lewis spent part of his camp filming a cameo in the heist movie and only touched down in South Africa 12 days before the fight. The champion fought with his hands low in the opening round, eating punches Rahman had no right to land. By the second, Lewis was breathing through his mouth at altitude. Rahman feinted a body jab in the fourth and cracked Lewis with a right hand over the top. The champion went down and never beat the count, losing his belt to one of the division's unlikeliest titleholders.

Rahman's trainer Morton had drilled him on a left hook for years, but even Lewis knew the challenger only carried a right hand. That single punch changed everything. The rematch seven months later in Las Vegas saw Lewis flatten Rahman in the fourth round to reclaim the WBC strap, but the first fight remains one of heavyweight boxing's great upsets. Rahman fights next on the celebrity exhibition circuit, with no formal bout scheduled as of this month.

Source: ringmagazine.com