by David P. Greisman
What are Hasim Rahman’s nightmares made up of?
Perhaps Rahman tosses and turns while thinking of the David Tua left hook that caught him after the ninth round ended in 1998, hurting him badly enough to lead to a stoppage in the next stanza.
Maybe he shivers recalling the perfect Lennox Lewis knockout punch in their November 2001 rematch, as Rahman went down for the count and Don King’s painted mat logo lined up perfectly so as to crown Rahman on the night he was dethroned.
Or it could be that Evander Holyfield’s head is his nighttime boogeyman, the weapon that built a monster of a hematoma out of Rahman’s noggin.
And if the unholy trinity of Tua, Lewis and Holyfield isn’t enough, then it might be that Rahman adds in John Ruiz as his fourth horseman of the apocalypse, the jabbing and grabbing beast of a boring heavyweight who nonetheless outperformed him in 2003.
But if you listened to Fred Kesch – Oleg Maskaev’s manager – during a conference call earlier this month promoting this past weekend’s rematch between Rahman and Maskaev, you’d realize that Rahman must be weighed down by one specific punch from November 1999.
In the eighth round of Rahman and Maskaev’s first meeting, Maskaev landed a right hand that sent Rahman reeling out of the ring, onto the floor and out of the fight. It was highlight-worthy for Maskaev, but a lowlight for Rahman constantly replayed to sell the rematch.
“I believe and I’ve been told that Hasim Rahman wakes up every night in cold sweat recalling that punch that Oleg threw at him,” Kesch told the media. “And when he enters that ring, that’s all that’s going to be on his mind.”
However doubtful it was that Kesch had a reliable source monitoring Rahman’s bedroom, Maskaev’s team worked hard at playing mind games. In one of the more brilliant public relations moves since Punxsutawney Phil (wrongly) predicted a Jeff Lacy victory over Joe Calzaghe, a press release was sent out noting that Maskaev was concerned over Rahman’s safety, and planned “to petition the Nevada State Athletic Commission for extra padding on the arena floor around the ring to cushion the blow to Rahman’s head when he is re-launched down and out!”
Beware of falling Rock.
Promising that he’d prevent a repeat performance, Rahman admitted to taking Maskaev lightly in their first bout.
“I thought I had a Heavyweight Explosion type fighter in front of me, so it was going to be an easy fight,” Rahman said on a conference call in early August. “And I fought the fight like it was going to be an easy fight…. I didn’t know Oleg Maskaev was pretending, was somebody, a legitimate threat.”
On Saturday, Rahman treated Maskaev like a legitimate number-one contender, controlling the early rounds with a strong jab and hard right hands.
As the fight progressed, however, Rahman’s stamina waned, aided in part by Maskaev’s effective body shots. The bout that began with Maskaev attempting to remain close enough to land that one momentum-changing punch saw a switching of roles as Rahman stopped working behind his jab, instead walking in and loading up on his right hands.
Rahman put himself in Maskaev’s wheelhouse.
In the twelfth round, Rahman was drained while Maskaev had his second wind. A Rahman jab attempt was interrupted by Maskaev’s own jab, a straight right off of Rahman’s jaw, a left hook to his neck, a looping right and a flurry of punches that sent Rahman stumbling backwards and nearly through the first and second ropes.
After the obligatory eight count from referee Jay Nady, Rahman was back on the defensive against a Maskaev onslaught. Rahman attempted to hold on to Maskaev’s waist but fell forward and rolled partially under the bottom rope, almost colliding with the ringside photographers.
It was as if Rahman’s rear end had a magnetic attraction to the concrete below. Rahman’s momentum was out of the ring and in Maskaev’s favor. Maskaev charged in to finish Rahman up, forcing Nady to stop the bout as Rahman stood defenseless, his tail once more directing his body weight away from the canvas.
With his surprising twelfth-round stoppage victory, Maskaev finalized the fairy tale of his career suggested by the nickname of “boxing’s Cinderella story” given by his handlers. The man who had been mismanaged by his past team and manhandled by past opponents is now a heavyweight titlist.
Rahman, then, is the pumpkin.
With one loss each to Tua, Lewis, Holyfield, Ruiz and two knockout defeats at the (right) hands of Maskaev, Rahman is the man who made it to the big dance but broke a heel on his glass slippers.
He is a two-time heavyweight titlist who never won a single defense, drawing once with James Toney and dropping the belt after being dropped by Lewis and Maskaev.
The clock has struck midnight on Rahman’s championship reign, and now he must go home, sleep on this weekend’s result and either let his nightmares consume him or draw upon them for motivation.
Beware of the fallen Rock.
The 10 Count
1. Marketing Rahman-Maskaev II as “America’s Last Line of Defense” against Eastern European heavyweights may have been good for selling pay-per-views, but it was insulting to Maskaev, who, as Michael Buffer aptly put it, is “originally from Kazakhstan, raised in Uzbekistan but now a U.S. citizen fighting out of Staten Island, New York.” Whether it is nationalistic remnants of Cold War paranoia, concern over the state of heavyweight boxing in the States, a fascination with the situation or just plain xenophobia, the marketing and Maskaev’s victory had the fight results listed as a top story under CNN.com’s “Latest News.”
2. Speaking of hopes for American boxing, Joe Mesi was back in action on Saturday, stopping tomato can Dennis Matthews in less than two rounds in Arkansas. It was Mesi’s third win since returning from an involuntarily two-year layoff (properly) caused by the subdural hematomas he suffered in a 2004 win over Vassiliy Jirov. The win, of course, must be taken for what it was, the defeat of a heavyweight who is now 9-28 and has lost eight in a row.
3. Sticking with worries over former heavyweights’ health, current Contender trainer Jeremy Williams was not allowed to make his K-1 mixed martial arts debut on Saturday due to concerns over his 2004 knockout loss from a single Samuel Peter left hook, according to reporter Karl Freitag. While due diligence is proper and that Peter knockout was frightening, I’m curious as to why other boxers are allowed to fight on after kayo losses while Williams wasn’t. Were there medical tests that showed irregularities?
4. Rahman-Maskaev II broadcast, round eight, Lennox Lewis: “That jab is definitely apparent, definitely definitely effective.”
5. Every referee has the occasional bad night, but Jay Nady’s obsession with barely existent holding during Rahman-Maskaev II had this viewer happy that Nady doesn’t don the pinstripes for refereeing football. It also had me wishing that he’d supervised more John Ruiz fights than just Ruiz’ loss to Roy Jones.
6. Reports are that Kirk Johnson’s technical knockout loss to Javier Mora in March may be changed to a no decision after the California State Athletic Commission voted nearly unanimously to overturn the result. Johnson suffered multiple injuries to his right leg after falling to the canvas while Mora was standing on his foot, yet for some reason a TKO win was given to Mora despite no landed punches causing Johnson’s inability to continue. The vote must be approved, and it should be, but the proper resolution is still a rematch.
7. Last December, Gary Shaw’s stable included Winky Wright, Manny Pacquiao, Jeff Lacy, Diego Corrales and the newly acquired Vivian Harris, whose image was in need of rehabilitation. But Wright set sail for a business partnership with Golden Boy Promotions, Pacquiao struck out on his own, and, as Karl Freitag recently noted, Lacy may no longer be a Shaw fighter after turning down bouts with Antonio Tarver and Allan Green. Despite losing three superstars, Shaw must think positively; he still has Corrales, Vivian Harris won a fight against Stevie Johnston, Rafael Marquez has signed on and Chad Dawson is ready to make his mark in the light heavyweight division.
8. ESPN2’s Wednesday Night Fights wrapped up a mostly-successful season last week, a year that saw some good, competitive bouts with recognizable names mixed in with a few of the usual inconsequential stinkers. But their output was on the positive side, and if the network can continue its momentum, broadcast boxing will continue to improve.
9. Which will occur first: Pongsaklek Wonjongkam making another mandatory defense of his flyweight title or Prince Naseem Hamed’s long-awaited comeback?
10. The Contender Update: Two Tuesdays ago, untested junior middleweight Walter Wright beat outmatched junior welterweight via a unanimous five-round decision. And last Tuesday, underrated 154-lb. journeyman Grady Brewer finally got in the ring against Vinroy Barrett, with Brewer taking the decision victory.
Going into this week’s episode, six members remain on the blue team: Nick Acevedo, Freddy Curiel, Michael Stewart, Norberto Bravo, Brewer and Cornelius Bundrage.
Barrett’s loss breaks the tie between the teams and drops the gold team, who had won the previous two bouts, to five members: Gary Balletto, Steve Forbes, Wright, Ebo Elder and Jeff Fraza.
Five contestants have now advanced to the second round: Bundrage, Bravo, Balletto, Wright and Brewer.
