By Eric Thomas: 39-year-old former IBF/WBC heavyweight champion Hasim Rahman (50-7-2, 41 KO’s) injured his right wrist in training for his scheduled July 14th title challenge against WBA heavyweight champion Alexander Povetkin (24-0, 16 KO’s).

The injury was severe enough to where Rahman had to undergo surgery to clear up the problem, which has been described as a cyst according to ESPN.

Rahman’s promoter had an injury clause in Rahman’s fight contract so that the fight will merely be postponed and not cancelled. Rahman will need two weeks for the injury to heal. It’s unclear when the fight will take place, however, because the two fighters will need to clear it with German television to see when they’ll be able to televise the fight. The bout was scheduled to take place at the Sporthallem in Hamburg, Germany. It had previously been scheduled to take place at Upton Park in London on the undercard of the David Haye vs. Dereck Chisora clash, but they decided to move it to Hamburg to fit into the schedule for television.

Rahman, #1 WBA, has been given a very generous ranking by the World Boxing Association despite having faced largely lower level quality fighters. Rahman was stopped in the 7th round by IBF/WBO heavyweight champion Wladimir Klitschko in a failed title challenge in December 2008. Rahman has rebounded from that loss to beat the following fighters to earn another title shot: Clinton Boldridge (9-15-1), Shannon Miller (16-4), Damon Reed (46-13), Marcus McGee (22-17), and Galen Brown (35-16-1). Rahman hasn’t fought since last year in June. It’s been an entire year since he last fought, yet he’s getting a title shot.

Rahman is best known for having beaten IBF/WBC heavyweight champion Lennox Lewis by a 5th round knockout in April 2001 in a huge upset. Rahman didn’t last long as the champion, though, as he was knocked out in his next fight by Lewis in a rematch, suffering a 4th round TKO defeat in November 2001.