Two-time heavyweight champion, Hasim Rahman, has had his say on the undisputed fight the boxing world wants to see.
With a record of 50 wins from 62 fights, Hasim Rahman will be forever qualified to comment on boxing’s heavyweight division. Speaking to FightHype, ‘The Rock’ Rahman responded affirmatively when asked if Oleksandr Usyk could beat Tyson Fury in their much-discussed match up.
“I think so.
I think Usyk is the best heavyweight that’s currently fighting today. I think Fury imitates Usyk, and he’s had a lot of success with it – fighting plodding, slow heavyweights [who aren’t] really boxing like that. Everything Fury can do in boxing, Usyk can do it better.”
High praise for the Ukrainian, who is coming off a second victory over Anthony Joshua in which he retained his unified champion status. In the wake of the fight, he said if he couldn’t fight Fury, he wouldn’t fight at all.
Rahman was then asked about the size factor, namely: does a good big man beat a good smaller man?
“With heavyweights it’s different. Most heavyweights are lazy, and they don’t have that work ethic. With the smaller guys it’s a little different.
With Usyk’s boxing IQ, that’s going to play a big, major part. A lot of time the smaller guys [lower weight classes] IQs kind of cancel each other out.”
It’s perhaps not surprising to hear Rahman favour the smaller man in Usyk. He exploded onto the world stage with a huge upset KO victory over then-champion Lennox Lewis – in that fight, he weighed 15lbs less than his opponent.
The heavyweight retired for good in 2014, however his family name lives on in the sport. It was recently announced that his son, Hasim Rahman Jr, is to fight Brazilian MMA star, Vitor Belfort, on October 15.
On the undisputed fight Rahman was discussing, new developments have been reported hinting that the fight could take place early in 2023.