Hasim Rahman, 53, beaten in heavyweight comeback

Hasim Rahman is a 53-year-old former world heavyweight champion responsible for one of the greatest upsets in boxing history. On Thursday he was beaten over six rounds by 40-year-old club fighter, Paul Triantafillo.

Rahman, 50-10-2 (41 KOs), famously beat Lennox Lewis in April 2001, shocking the heavyweight king with a fifth-round KO. Lewis restored order seven months later, stopping Rahman in four.

Rahman would remain a sturdy contender, even regaining the WBC title when he was upgraded from interim beltholder in 2005.

But the hard fights – against Lewis, Evander Holyfield, David Tua, Oleg Maskaev, James Toney, Corrie Sanders and Obed Sullivan – would take their toll. He looked shot to bits while being stopped in seven rounds by Wladimir Klitschko in 2008 and, four years later, he was savaged by Alexander Povetkin in two rounds.

The Indiana Gaming Commission presided over his depressing loss to Triantafillo. It should be little wonder that boxing is regarded as a dirty sport by so many when there are commissions in existence that allow 53-year-olds with a history of brain trauma are allowed to fight.

Mercifully, the 5-4 (1 KO) Triantafillo didn’t bring a great deal himself. The action, such as it was, was slow throughout. But the younger man did enough.

At the end of six rounds, the judges all scored against Rahman 58-56 and tallies of 59-55.

Rahman had insisted he was coming back to rule the world again. He’d done what plenty of ex-fighters do: taken a break; teased himself in the gym; and forgotten all about what made him walk away in the first place.

The truth was told inside the ring, however.