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Rahman is one strong MF. -
looks real...Comment
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Wasted my ass. He barely had any amatuer experience and he started late and wasn't properly trained so if you mean that, sure, he was wasted.
So, any word on his son? I remember reading articles about him. Rock mentioned that he starte late and he wanted his son to have a better path, starting younger and with great training by a great trainer...so he took him to Manny.
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Fathers And Sons:
Rahman Wants Better for Hasim Jr.
TigerBoxing.com
09/30/2006 - New York
By Nat Gottlieb
Emanuel Steward and Hasim Rahman have history together. Now they have a future.
Like most people, Rahman has made mistakes in his life. Some he learned from, others he didn’t. When it came to his son, however, he made sure he got it right.
Hasim Rahman Jr., just 15, is a chip off the old block. He is built like his father, going 6-foot-1 and 198 pounds, fights at heavyweight like Dad, and would love to follow in his footsteps.
Up to a point. He wants an amateur career before turning pro.
Larry Merchant, the HBO commentator, summed up Rahman’s inconsistent career quite nicely when he told me, “Rahman has accomplished more in his career than anybody else who only started professional boxing at age 22.”
There is a huge gap in Rahman’s resume, and it is one that kept him from fulfilling his abundant talent — he had virtually no amateur experience.
“I had like 10 amateur fights, one year’s experience, then I turned pro,” Rahman said.
Rahman wanted a better foundation for his talented son before he sent him out as a pro. Enter Manny Steward.
“Rahman came to me two months ago and said, ‘I want to speak with you as a father, not a fighter. I have a son. Everybody in Vegas wants to train him. But I don’t want nobody to mess him up. I am told you are the best there is in teaching basics. I want him to have everything I could not be because I didn’t have an amateur background,’” said Steward, whose only loss in 18 fights as trainer of Lennox Lewis was to Rahman in 2001.
Rahman gave Steward his vision quest for Junior. “He wants me to build a foundation with him so when he is 20, he can go to the Olympics,” Steward said. “He said, ‘Take your time, there’s no rush.’ In a business where kids are always rushed up the ladder, it was refreshing to hear that.”
Steward, of course, is the master builder of young boxers. Since he began training fighters in the early 1970s at his famous Kronk Gym in Detroit, the Hall of Famer has made it a cardinal rule that his boxers all learn fundamentals before they step in the ring. Even Tommy Hearns, who was most known for his knockout power, had terrific boxing skills — as Sugar Ray Leonard can attest to — and he kicked them in gear whenever he felt the power game wasn’t working. That ability is something Rahman never had.
Nowhere was that more evident than in three of Rahman’s losses, all to fighters with Olympic experience. Rahman was well on his way to victory against New Zealand Olympian David Tua in 1998, when he suffered a technical knockout in the 10th round of a scheduled 12-rounder. Rahman was ahead on two scorecards, 89-82, and on the third, 89-87.
The following year his inability to box his way carefully through the final three rounds of another fight caused him an embarrassing loss to Oleg Maskaev, who knocked him out of the ring in the eighth round of a 10-rounder. Rahman was leading, 68-65, 70-63 and 68-65, at the time. Of Rahman’s remaining four losses, three also came against skilled former Olympians — Evander Holyfield, Lewis (rematch) and Maskaev (this year).
“I have a lot of respect for Rahman,” Steward said. “He was in there with Maskaev, who knocked out Vitali (Klitschko, first round) in the amateurs, and has all that Soviet amateur experience. Rahman fought Olympic guys like Tua and Lewis. In contrast, Hasim started professional boxing at 22, and had no amateur experience to speak off. He was in over his head because the other guys had much more experience, they could do so many things in the ring he couldn’t.”
Steward brought Hasim Jr. to Detroit and liked what he saw.
“I had his son for three weeks at the Kronk. I had him work with Jonathan Banks,” Steward said. Banks (9-0) is a highly-touted cruiserweight prospect trained by Steward. “When Hasim went back home and showed his father some new moves, Hasim (Sr.) called me and said, ‘He already knows more than me.’”
Rahman took up boxing largely because of his son.
“When my son was born, I was really looking for something to do,” Rahman said. “You know a child is gonna follow his dad. If the dad is a gangster or a killer or a drug dealer, the child’s going to think, ‘If it was good enough for my dad, it’s good enough for me.’ And I didn’t want that for my son.”
Rahman simply walked into a Baltimore gym at 21 and said he wanted to fight.
“They didn’t teach me any basics. They just said I had a good right hand, so that’s all I threw, right hands. I didn’t know any better,” Rahman said.
Given the disadvantages Rahman had, Steward found much to praise in his career.
“Hasim was a two-time world champion. That is quite an accomplishment,” Steward said.Comment
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Here is "little" Hasim
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