Judge Rules Hasim Rahman Must Fight Rematch With Lennox Lewis

Someone once said that if you lie down with dogs you will surely catch fleas. Newly crowned Heavyweight champion Hasim Rahman laid down in the gutter with promoter Don King, and the case of fleas Rahman caught cost him at least $10 million, and maybe even more. The whole world of boxing is busting their gut laughing, while Rahman’s scratches like a lunatic. All because of an honest New York City judge. Who woulda figured?

In a case initiated by former heavyweight champion Lennox Lewis, New York federal Judge Miriam Cedarbaum barred Rahman from fighting for 18 months unless his first defense is a rematch against Lennox Lewis. Rahman knocked out Lewis on April 21 to earn both the World Boxing Council and International Boxing Federation titles.

The contract for the Lewis-Rahman fight contained a clause that if Rahman won, Lewis would get a rematch within 150 days. Rahman, then itching with greed, turned downed a $17 million from HBO for a rematch with Lewis, even though the original contract only called for Rahman to get $3.15 million. Rahman also turned down a $20 million contract with Showtime to fight Mike Tyson. Instead, Rahman took a briefcase filled with $5000,000 in hard cold cash from Don King in a midtown restaurant, plus a check for $4,500,000 from King as a signing bonus. The contract with King called for Rahman to receive $5 million to fight David Izon on August 4th in China on the undercard of John Ruiz-Evander Holyfield III. Then another $17 million to fight the winner of Ruiz-Holyfield. Making the contract worth a possible $27 million. Oh what a tangled web we weave, bla... bla... bla... bla... bla...

Although the Rahman-Lewis contract called for Rahman to earn only $3.15 million for the rematch, Judge Cedarbaum called for "good faith negotiations" between the camps to raise Rahman's purse. "If they're trying to stick me with the 3.15, then that's not good faith," Rahman said. "If they're not talking eight figures, then they're not talking to me."

Lewis' attorney Judd Burstein said: "Rahman is more likely to be panhandling than he is to get $10 million for this fight. I said we'd negotiate and we will, but unless cows are flying, he's not getting eight figures. And if Mr. Rahman doesn't fight, every dollar that has been paid to him by Don King will be recovered by us in damages."

Cedarbaum said she decided to issue the injunction partly because "we have evidence that Lennox Lewis has two more years to fight." She added, "He is not in the position of someone who can fight indefinitely."

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