(Photo: Team Sauerland) By Allan Fox: Former WBC heavyweight champion Hasim Rahman (50-7-2, 41 KO’s) feels like he’s invisible going into this Saturday’s fight against WBA World heavyweight champion Alexander Povetkin (24-0, 16 KO’s) at the Sporthalle, Alsterdorf, Hamburg, Germany. Rahman thinks he’s being overlooked and thinks he’s in the position where he’ll have to get a knockout in order to win the fight.

Rahman said “I don’t plan being in there long. I feel like the cards are stacked against me. That’s why I’m going to knock him out.”

Rahman, 39, is in the best shape he’s been quite some time and looks to have taken off at least 30 pounds possibly more from the 284 lbs that he weighed for his last fight against Galen Brown last year in June in winning a 6th round TKO. Rahman has always been able to punch with a lot of power with his right hand, but he’s been in active in the past four years in terms of taking on quality opposition. It’s going to be a big test for him to be taking on someone as good as Povetkin in Germany.

Winning a decision might be really tough for Rahman and might actually need a KO to win this fight. One thing that could potentially be a problem for Rahman, besides his age and lack of quality opponents in the last four years, is the weight loss. Rahman looks a little too thin like he took too much weight off in a hurry for this fight. It’s unknown how long it took for Rahman to trim off all the weight that he was carrying for his last fight, but I wouldn’t be surprised at all if Rahman took the weight off in a hurry because he has the look of someone that took weight off rapidly.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=P5YFmzeHokg&feature=plcp

His face and upper torso looks thin, much thinner than I’ve ever seen before even in his prime years when he wasn’t heavy. Losing fat is a good thing, but it looks like Rahman lost a lot of muscle as well in taking off the excess flab. That’s not a good thing it could cost him what little chance he has to win this fight.

Rahman probably isn’t going to be able to beat a fighter like Povetkin by a decision anyway because he doesn’t throw as many punches as him and isn’t known for boxing his way to decisions. But in losing a lot of weight it weaken Rahman to the point where he won’t be able to rely on his once formidable right hand power to try and win on Saturday night.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0kQKJ8djyMQ&feature=plcp

Rahman should feel like the deck is stacked against him because he’s going into the fight with Povetkin as an opponent, and and a lot of people don’t see him worthy of his number #1 ranking. It’ll be easy for the judges to dismiss what Rahman does in each round because he’s not expected to win the fight, since he’s just an opponent. If Rahman had been beating contenders one after another for the past four years instead of the weak opposition he’s been facing, he’d been seen in a different light and might have a chance to win a decision.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=s4Et2d2kpnc&feature=plcp