Lewis Regains Title With 4th Round KO of Rahman
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One big right hand from Lennox Lewis and Hasim Rahman gave back the heavyweight title he had taken from Lewis just seven months ago in South Africa, with his own big right hand. The official time was 1:29 of the fourth round.
Lewis became the fourth man to regain the heavyweight championship from the fighter to whom he had lost it. The others were Floyd Patterson, Muhammad Ali and Evander Holyfield.
The difference this time was that Lewis had actually taken the time to get into fighting shape. The six-foot five-inch Lewis weighed 246 1/2 for this fight, which took place at the Mandalay Bay Events Center in Las Vegas. When he was KO'd by Rahman, Lewis weight 6 1/2 pounds heavier, and had spent precious time just 10 days before the fight making the movie Oceans 11, staring George Clooney.
"His name has been changed," Lewis gloated after the fight. "He's no longer Hasim. He's has-been. The belts were on loan. He had them for his 15 minutes of glory. Now they're back with me."
Lewis also admitted when he fought Rahman the first time he wasn't quite prepared.
"I told you he was a freshman in the game," Lewis said. "I just stayed focused. In South Africa I didn't take him seriously enough."
''I never saw the punch coming,'' Rahman said after the fight. "I thought he did a good job of attacking and keeping his distance. There is not a dominant heavyweight in the division. Any one of us can get beat at any time. He set up with the left and hit me with a good right. He is a big strong guy with enormous weight and he hit me with a good shot and I couldn't recover."
It took seven months for the rematch to take place. Lewis had to go to court to force Rahman to honor a guaranteed rematch clause in the contract for the first bout. Rahman made the biggest mistake of his life when he severed relations with his long-time promoter Cedric Kushner, then rejected big bucks offers from HBO and Showtime to sign a promotional contract with promoter Don King. Now Rahman has no title and no guaranteed television contract.
Serves him right
The contract for the return bout showed that Lewis was paid $11 million for the rematch, while the champion Rahman made only $5 million. King promised Rahman he would give him millions more from as yet undetermined pay-per-view and foreign TV revenue. But King's past reputation leads one to believe Rahman won't see a penny more from the convicted murder and outright scoundrel.
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