By Jason Kim: Former heavyweight champion Hasim Rahman (50-7-2, 41 KO’s) is poised to get a crack at WBA heavyweight champion Alexander Povetkin in 2012 as long as the 38-year-old Rahman doesn’t get beat before then.

The World Boxing Association has given Rahman a number #1 ranking in the division. This puts Rahman in a great position to fight for a title in 2012 against the likely December fight between Povetkin and 48-year-old Evander Holyfield. It’ll likely be Povetkin that emerges the winner of that fight unless he falls apart completely.

Rahman really hasn’t done much to deserve a number #1 ranking. Since losing to IBF/WBO heavyweight champion Wladimir Klitschko by a 7th round TKO in December 2008, Rahman has won his last five fights against 2nd and 3rd tier opposition. It’s been pretty much all fights against journeyman, and yet Rahman was still pushed to the number one spot by the WBA.

It’s rather disappointing to see fighters get put in the #1 position without having to face a quality contender to earn that position. But we see the sanctioning bodies doing this again and again. What it leads to is a lot of mismatches where a champion has an easy time destroying someone that arguably has no business fighting for a world title given their lack of quality fights leading up to it.

Rahman, however, will get his shot next year and likely lose badly. In his last fight, Rahman weighed a career high of 284 lbs in beating journeyman Galen Brown by a 6th round stoppage last June. Rahman looked in terrible shape. Will Rahman come in better shape for a title shot against Povetkin? One would hope so, but you just can’t know. He’s up in there in age now and hasn’t fought a quality opponent in three years since losing to Wladimir, and he looked terrible in that fight.

This has got to be good news for Povetkin, because he’s taking the title milking fight against Holyfield in December, and then to be given a fight against another old guy like Rahman, it can’t get any better than this for Povetkin. He’s virtually guaranteed a year of milking his title without a real threat to him. The WBA has really done Povetkin a huge favor by ranking Rahman at number #1 instead of someone that can actually beat him like Robert Helenius.