Hasim Rahman

Hasim Sharif Rahman (born November 7, 1972) is an American former professional boxer who competed from 1994 to 2014.

He had just 10 amateur bouts before making his pro debut on December 3, 1994, at age 22.

Rahman tried to compensate on his lack of amateur background by being busy in the pros, sometimes fighting within five days from the previous bout.

His first was on September 24, 1994, when Oliver McCall defeated him via 2nd-round TKO.

Lewis had an immediate-rematch clause in the contract for his defense against Hasim, and chose to invoke it.

Rahman and his new promoter, Don King, made plans to defend the titles against David Izon, rather than giving Lewis his rematch.

Lewis sued Rahman in U.S. federal court to enforce their contract.

Rahman had nine professional fights in 1995, and eleven in 1996.

Rahman had obvious natural boxing skills that propelled him to 11 knockout wins in his first 12 fights.

He took a step up in class in March 1996 with a 10-round decision win over veteran Ross Puritty and seven months later, he repeated the feat against former world champion Trevor Berbick.

In July 1997, he won the regional USBA heavyweight title, and four months later, he added another regional belt, the IBF Intercontinental heavyweight title, defending the USBA title three times and the Intercontinental belt twice.

On December 19, 1998, Rahman faced fellow contender David Tua in a fight to determine the IBF's mandatory contender.

Rahman was using his power jab well, out boxing Tua virtually every round.

At the end of the 9th round Tua staggered Rahman with a devastating punch after the bell that dazed him.

At the beginning of the next round Tua hit him with several heavy shots and the referee jumped in when Rahman was bobbing and weaving.

Tua won by TKO.

It was argued that it should have been a DQ.

Because of the controversial nature of the loss, Rahman's ranking did not suffer, but in November 1999, he was knocked out by Oleg Maskaev in the eighth round of a fight he looked to be winning.

At one point during the match, Rahman was knocked through the ropes onto the floor, hitting his head on the floor.

Rahman dropped out of The Ring top 10 as a result of the surprise loss.

Rahman later said that he had seen Maskaev earlier in his career get knocked out in the first round by former champion Oliver McCall and he assumed he was brought in as an easy win.

Rahman claimed that because of this, he did not train as hard as he should have and was beaten.

He was ranked as a top 10 heavyweight by BoxRec from 2000 to 2007, and reached his highest ranking of world No.6 in 2000.

Rahman came back with three wins, including one in May 2000 over Corrie Sanders in a war in which he was dropped twice and came back to win in 7, and after that he was moved back up in the rankings.

After this fight, Sanders briefly retired.

He is a two-time world heavyweight champion, having held the unified WBC, IBF, IBO and lineal titles in 2001; and the WBC title again from 2005 to 2006.

Rahman first became known on the world stage in 2001 when he scored an upset knockout victory against Lennox Lewis to win the unified heavyweight championship.

Lewis avenged the loss and regained his championship by knocking out Rahman in a rematch later that year.

Finally, on April 22, 2001, Rahman earned a shot at Lennox Lewis the WBC, IBO and IBF heavyweight champion with a win over Frankie Swindell.

Rahman beat Swindell via 7th-round RTD.

Swindell quit on his stool after the 7th round, informing the ringside doctor that he had suffered an eye injury.

In the fight, held at Brakpan, South Africa, Lewis and Rahman traded hard blows for five rounds before Rahman, a 20-to-1 underdog, stunned the crowd by defeating Lewis via 5th-round KO.

It was only the second loss of Lewis' career.

The judge, Neil McCluskey sided with Lewis and on November 17, 2001, in Las Vegas, the two men met again.

This time, Lewis brutally knocked Rahman out in the fourth round.

For the rematch, Lewis made $11 million and Rahman got $10 million.

The fight generated 460,000 pay-per-view buys and $23 million in revenue.

Rahman won the WBC title (initially the interim version) for a second time in 2005 by defeating Monte Barrett, after which the WBC elevated him to full champion status by the year's end.

His reign as champion ended in 2006 via another knockout loss, this time to Oleg Maskaev in a rematch of their first fight in 1999.

Rahman started boxing at a relatively late age, taking up the sport at the age of 20.