By Matteo Alderson
I’m looking forward to this weekend’s Rahman-Barrett matchup because it’s going to reveal a lot about Hasim’s status as one of the premiere heavyweights in the division. Forget about James Toney, he’s fat, short, old and wouldn’t have a prayer against a “quality” heavyweight that knows how to use his size.
Lamon Brewster is limited and was lucky that Wladimir Klitschko has Tommy Morrison like stamina. Watch the fight, Wlad was beating Brewster up from pillar to post until he ran out of gas. The loss was very reminiscent of Derrick Jefferson’s performance against David Izon in 2000 on the under-card of Roy Jones-David Telesco.
Since his performance against Golota, a lot of observers are jumping on the Brewster bandwagon, but I wouldn’t put too much stock into that victory because Golota has never been able to deal with punchers. Come on, Lamon went life and death with Kali Meehan and lost to Charles Shufford and Clifford Ettiene, he’s a no-hoper.
Chris Byrd is a super skilled heavyweight and would have been able to compete in any era because heavyweights that can box like lightweights are always rare. The problem is, Chris is getting up there, he’ll be 35 on August 15, and speed and reflexes are the first things to go and those are Chris’ primary assets.
As highly as I think of Byrd, it’s obvious that his skills have deteriorated considerably and that he’s probably only about 80% of the fighter that beat David Tua, Vitali Klitschko, and Evander Holyfield.
John Ruiz is an overachiever and if anybody else had wins against Rahman, Kirk Johnson, and Fres Oquendo I would hold him in high regard, regardless if he lost to two former middleweight champs.
The problem with Ruiz is that his style is so boring, so uninspiring and lacking any type of athletic prowess, that it’s obvious that he’s only been successful because of his frustrating hit and hold style which he has perfected to a tee. Usually when I read stories about Don King taking fighter’s money or not paying them the contracted amount I feel bad, but in Ruiz’s case, he should be giving King at least half of his purses because King’s political maneuvering has had as much to do with his success as his style.
Now Samuel Peter is an interesting bloke, he punches hard, real hard. One gets the feeling that he could knock down a brick wall with his fists and I’m really looking forward to his fight with Wlad. In fact I think it’s one of the year’s ten best matches. Two big heavyweight sluggers who prefer offense over defense, it’s going to be great and might be another Moorer-Cooper or a Foreman-Lyle. It’s a lot better than the main event mismatch between Miguel Cotto and Gatti Victim, Gianluca Branco.
The problem with Peter is that he looks raw, real raw, and sometimes watching him I get the feeling that I’m watching someone who is fighting in the Golden Gloves. Still if he gets by Wlad I’ll jump on the Samuel Peter bandwagon because if he beats the Ukrainian he’ll have to show us that he has a chin. The lethal combination of a man that hits that hard with a solid set of whiskers is going to be tough to beat. I just think that the fight is a little premature and that Samuel should have had three or four more fights against an Al Cole or Clifford Etienne to try to refine his technique and sharpen his edges before tackling the division’s top ten.
That being said, I like Klitschko in the upset and think he is going to be up for this fight. Wlad’s straight punches and superior technique will enable him to gain an early lead which he will be able to maintain since Peter is probably going to be too tired to take advantage of the weakened Klitschko.
Even if Wlad wins, he’ll never be the fighter he was in 2002 and will never be undisputed champ, his confidence is damaged and his stamina nonexistent. He’s just another knockout waiting to happen.
This brings us to the Rahman-Barrett match. I don’t think much of Barrett because I can’t think highly of anybody that lost to Joe Mesi. Barrett is also small compared to most heavyweights and doesn’t hit that hard. The fact that he is in shape and has decent boxing skills, makes him a top ten heavyweight in this division. Then there is Hasim Rahman. Rahman is a relatively young thirty-two, he’s got good size, decent power and is one of most experienced heavyweights in the world.
It looked like he finally put it all together in his demolishing win over Kali Meehan, but the problem with Rahman is his inconsistency. Losing to Lewis is understandable, but losing to John Ruiz and an ancient Evander Holyfield is horrible. Think about it, that was Evander’s only victory in the last five years. Still, I’m hoping that Rahman has developed into a mature fighter and that he is successful against Barrett in order to face Vitali.
Vitali Klitschko will finally earn his distinction as the Ring Magazine Heavyweight Champion once he beats the winner of Barrett-Rahman later this year.
Despite the fact that Lennox Lewis hasn’t fought in over two years, if he came out of retirement today and weighed under 255 I would pick him against any heavyweight in the world.