Hasim Rahman–Back in the Ring

By Parvez Fatteh, Founder of http://sportingummah.com, sports@muslimobserver.com

Hasim Rahman, former world heavyweight champion of the World Boxing Council (WBC), International Boxing Federation (IBF), and World Boxing Organization (WBO), will be returning to the ring as a part of his comeback at the ripe old age of 38. He will be taking on undefeated United Kingdom heavyweight prospect Tyson Fury on the undercard of the Amir Khan-Paul McCloskey fight at the M.E.N. Arena in Manchester, England on Saturday April 16th. The 6-foot-9 Fury is 14-0 with 10 knockouts. Meanwhile, Rahman has 49 wins, with 7 losses and 2 draws, including 40 knockouts.

Nicknamed “The Rock,” Rahman was born in Baltimore, Maryland in 1972. He lived on the mean streets for much of his youth, before turning to boxing relatively late at the age of 20. He then went on to get only 10 amateur fights under his belt before making his professional debut in December of 1994 at the age of 22. He progressed so quickly on his natural ability that by the fall of 1998 he was already ranked as one of the top five heavyweight boxers in the world.

His shining moment came in April of 2001, when he shocked the world with a one-punch knockout of then WBC and IBF heavyweight champion Lennox Lewis in the fifth round in South Africa. Rahman had been a 20-to-1 underdog in that fight, and the two staged a rematch in November of that same year. However, this time Lewis regained his titles with a fourth-round knockout of Rahman. He would regain the WBC heavyweight title in November of 2005 with the retirement of Vitali Klitschko, only to lose it again in August of the very next year. Next Saturday’s fight will be the next stop on the road to regaining past glory for brother Hasim.

13-15