Rahman Not Ducking Haye

By Boxing News - 09/04/2008 - Comments

rahman5683461.jpgBy Aaron Klein: Contrary to reports about British heavyweight David Haye (21-0, 20 KOs) not having any fighters willing to fight him for his upcoming but on October 11th, former IBF/WBC heavyweight champion Hasim Rahman (45-6-2, 36 KOs) is reportedly very interested in fighting Haye, according to comments made by Rahman’s manager Steve Nelson to fightnews. Nelson recently fired back a rebuttal to Haye, who said that no one wants to fight him, remarking that Rahman does want to fight Haye, and that the two have been working on a deal for some months now, although no offers have been made by Haye’s people, according to the article by Bob Caico of fightnews.

This is interesting boxing news, because it seems to contradict the complaints made by Haye. If this turns out to be true, it would seem rather peculiar for Haye to say that there is no one willing to fight him, making one wonder why he would utter something like this unless he had an ulterior motive. Rahman, now 35, probably isn’t nearly the same fighter he was years ago when he shocked then heavyweight champion Lennox Lewis by knocking him out in the 4th in November 2001 to win the heavyweight titles, but Rahman still can punch with just about as much power as he did then.

For a fighter like Haye, who has had problems taking the best shots from smaller cruiserweights like Jean-Marc Mormeck and Carl Thompson, a fight with someone like Rahman, who is even a harder puncher than either Mormeck or Thompson, would be something that Haye should think carefully about before diving in over his head. Rahman may have had his share of problems in the past couple of years, first losing his World Boxing Council heavyweight title in a 12th round TKO loss to Oleg Maskaev, then recently fighting to a 3rd round no contest with James Toney after Rahman received a nasty cut over his left eye, but he still has a decent chin and tremendous power for a heavyweight.

He might not be as fast as Haye, but he’s got enough power to be more than a handful for a fighter with as little experience in the heavyweight division as Haye does. It reminds me somewhat of Wladimir Klitschko’s foolish decision to take on the 36 year-old Corrie Sanders in 2003. At the time, it was thought by many boxing fans that Wladimir had taken the fight thinking that Sanders was washed up due to his inactivity and advanced age.

As it turned out, Sanders had way too much for Wladimir and destroyed him in two brutal rounds. Wladimir may have been able to defeat Sanders if he could have gotten him beyond the 8th round, but it didn’t get to that point, because Sanders moved on Wladimir quickly and took him out with a flurry of big shots. The same may hold true for Haye if he decides on taking a risky fighter like Rahman.



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