Professional Career
Rahman got a relatively late start in the sport. He was an enforcer for drug dealers, and was known for surviving several shootings. He nearly died in a car accident (which left him with permanent scarring on his cheek and ear) and once survived a shooting where five bullets entered his body. He took up boxing at age 20 and had just 10 amateur bouts before making his pro debut on December 3, 1994, at age 22.
Despite his inexperience, Rahman had obvious natural boxing skills that propelled him to 11 knockout wins in his first 12 fights. Then he took a step up in class in March 1996 with a 10-round decision win over veteran Ross Puritty and seven months later, he repeated the feat against former world champion Trevor Berbick.
In July 1997, he won the regional USBA heavyweight title, and four months later, he added another regional belt, the IBF Intercontinental heavyweight title. Defending the USBA title three times and the Intercontinental belt twice. By the fall of 1998, he was ranked as one of the top five heavyweights in the world.
On December 19, 1998, Rahman faced fellow contender David Tua in a fight to determine the IBF's mandatory contender. Rahman was using his power jab well, out boxing Tua virtually every round. After the bell of the 9th round of Tua staggered him with a devastating punch that dazed Rahman. Rahman was never given any extra time to recover from the blow. At the beginning of the next round Tua pounced on him immediately, the referee jumped in when Rahman was bobbing and weaving. Tua won by TKO, it was argued that it should have been a DQ.
Because of the controversial nature of the loss, Rahman's ranking did not suffer, but in November 1999, he was knocked out by Oleg Maskaev in the eighth round of a fight he looked to be winning. At one point during the match, Rahman was knocked through the ropes onto the floor, hitting his head on the floor. Hasim dropped out of the Ring Magazine top 10 as a result of the surprise loss. Rahman later said that he had seen Maskaev earlier in his career get knocked out in the first round by former champion Oliver Mccall and he assumed he was brought in as an easy win. Because of this, he did not train as hard as he should have and was beaten.
Read more about this topic: Hasim Rahman
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