Silicon Investor (SI) -- The First Internet Community

STOCKTALK

We've detected that you're using an ad content blocking browser plug-in or feature. Ads provide a critical source of revenue to the continued operation of Silicon Investor. We ask that you disable ad blocking while on Silicon Investor in the best interests of our community. If you are not using an ad blocker but are still receiving this message, make sure your browser's tracking protection is set to the 'standard' level.

Pastimes : Boxing: The Sweet Science -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: mr.mark who wrote (3205)	4/20/2001 4:23:59 PM
From: LPS5	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 10489

Rahman intent on testing Lewis' legs by Bob Mee (Filed: 19/04/2001) HASIM RAHMAN'S face bears witness not to the rigours of his 36-fight professional career, but to a terrible car crash in his native Baltimore. Ten years on from the accident which ended the life of a friend to whom he will refer only as Michael, the hurt seems raw and fresh. The scars zigzag across the right side of his jaw. When he talks about boxing, fighting for the world heavyweight title against Lennox Lewis on Sunday here in Johannesburg, or about his relationship with his manager, the former music impresario Stan Hoffman, Rahman is happy and confident. When asked about the car crash, his voice slows and his answers have the halting quality of a man who cannot shake himself clear of the memory. "It was a car accident," he said. "My friend died. They literally had to put my face back on." The answers are brief and economical. Suffice to say he was 18 at the time, and Michael - "I don't want to say his other name" - was driving. His Muslim faith, and the passing of time, have allowed him the mercy of some objectivity. "I believe that accidents don't just happen," he said. "There is a purpose." Unlike so many others who have boxed Lewis, Rahman shows no sign of being mentally fazed by the prospect. Twelve months ago the unbeaten American, Michael Grant, was virtually hyperventilating at the pre-fight press conference. And the memory of poor Andrew Golota unravelling mentally during the week of his fight with Lewis in October 1997 remains vivid. Fighters who offer the suggestion that they have no fear are offering the possibility that they are afraid. Rahman deals with the issue of intimidation only when asked directly about it. "Whatever he hits me with, I know I have to hit him back. Every time," he said. "I am not quitting. I believe I will come out of there the heavyweight champion of the world." Rahman has done his hard work, beginning in the gym of his trainer, Adrian Davis, in Maryland, then preparing for four weeks at 4,000 feet in the Catskill Mountains, near Hoffman's house in the New York state countryside. When he steps into the ring to face Lewis, Rahman will have been living in Johannesburg for a day short of four weeks. While Lewis has scoffed at critics who believe he has not paid proper attention to the demands of fighting at 6,000 feet by coming here with less than two weeks to spare, Rahman insists that acclimatising has not been easy. Hoffman believes their job is to take the champion into the later rounds and apply increasing pressure if and when altitude sucks the strength from his legs. Rahman has lost two fights, beaten inside the distance by David Tua (who was systematically, crushingly out-boxed by Lewis last November) and Oleg Maskaev. The form book makes him a big underdog - 12-1 in Las Vegas - but with days to go Rahman, married with three children, seems almost joyful at the prospect of taking part in the biggest fight of his life. "Winning the world title will change my life and that of my family for generations to come," he said. "And it might even buy me a house near to my rich manager, where the neighbours are cows and horses." He won't say so, but if it happens he will also reflect on the length of the road he has travelled since that terrible day in Baltimore 10 years ago.