Deon Potgieter boxing
South African boxing was poised to become a major player on the international boxing scene following Hassim Rahman’s dumping of Lennox Lewis at Carnival City last month. The value of controlling the universal heavyweight champion would have had untold benefits for a country that has not had a good run on the boxing front of late.
While the two giant United States television networks HBO and Showtime were arguing over who would get a crack at the newly crowned champion, Lennox Lewis or Mike Tyson, they forgot about the man in the middle, the man with the crown.
They fumbled and Don King was there, as he put it, “to catch the ball and score”. As a result promoters Golden Gloves and therefore South Africa lost the biggest leverage point there is in boxing, the heavyweight championship. As for Lewis and Tyson, it’s unlikely that either of these two will ever hold the title of being the universal heavyweight champion of the world again.
If they’re lucky one of them may get a crack at the title in a year’s time. Golden Gloves US-based partner Cedric Kushner has taken the matter of King signing Rahman to the courts, saying that he still has a legally binding contract with the champion. King’s attorneys, however, are adamant that Kushner failed to renew his contract with Rahman before the Lewis fight, by not giving him a $75 000 payment.
Although Kushner reportedly tried to give him the money after his upset victory, Rahman turned it down. The situation could still have been saved. HBO offered Rahman $17-million for a return with Lewis. The champion used the Jerry McGuire tagline, “Show me the money”, and was told he could receive payment only the following day.
“I felt everybody was arguing Lewis and Tyson’s case, but nobody was arguing mine,” said Rahman. King, the promoter behind the staging of the first heavyweight world title clash in Africa, the “Rumble in the Jungle” between Muhammad Ali and George Foreman, had something immediate to offer Rahman.
A briefcase full of $500 000 in cash and a cheque for $4,5-million were promptly handed to the new champion for putting pen to paper on a two-fight deal with King.
Rahman will receive another $5-million to defend his title against Danish fighter Brian Nielsen on the under-card of the World Boxing Association heavyweight world title bout between John Ruiz and Evander Holyfield in China on August 4.
This will be the first time a universal heavyweight world title is on an under-card. It’s also the first time that a heavyweight world title bout will be staged in China. Beijing is the favourites to host the 2008 Olympics; this event is sure to help its cause.
Following this historic bout, and bar any upsets, Rahman will receive $15-million to unify his titles with that of the winner of Ruiz vs Holyfield. Since Holyfield lost a controversial points decision to Lewis in 1999, it’s been his dream to again be crowned the undisputed heavyweight champion of the world.
Suddenly it’s all quite possible. “I wanted to get the television networks out of the promoting of boxing and back into the business of broadcasting,” said King, who has no exclusivity deals with any television networks and thus is able to negotiate with all parties concerned.
If Holyfield can raise his game against Ruiz and Rahman beats Nielsen, the odds lean to Holyfield beating Rahman. Then the doors would open for a Holyfield-Tyson III bout. Holyfield knows he can beat Tyson, he’s done it twice before and they were popular bouts.
The Holyfield-Lewis bouts were both controversial but not the most exciting fights around, so if Lewis is still active by late next year, he’d be lucky to get the fight. A more probable route would be for him to challenge Wladimir Klitschko for his World Boxing Organisation heavyweight world title. Klitschko’s camp has already said that they would gladly accept a challenge from Lewis. The two met each other face to face while pretending to have a fight in a new Hollywood movie reuniting Julia Roberts and Brad Pitt called Oceans Eleven, which was shot just prior to Lewis arriving in South Africa for the Rahman bout.
Klitschko has been pencilled in to defend his title also on August 4 against one of Lewis’s former opponents, Frans Botha. The White Buffalo, who must have the best business manager in boxing, faces Darryl Wilson next month in a bout for television network ESPN2 and then, if all goes well, will take on the giant Klitschko at the Mandalay Bay Casino in Las Vegas for HBO.
Botha has built his reputation on dispatching a number of unknowns and the posting of impressive losses to the likes of Michael Moorer and Tyson. He is a firm favourite in Las Vegas, though, and keeps his fans happy by knocking out a number of faceless fighters. The Wilson fight will be his third since being blown away by Lewis last July.
Before the Rahman development he was also being touted as a possible opponent for the winner of the Ruiz-Holyfield bout. If he impresses against the big German, who knows, he might even beat Tyson and Lewis to get a shot at the big one.
For now, Rahman, who left for a pilgrimage to Mecca last week, is at the top of the world. Will he return to defend his titles in South Africa, the place he called his second home? Not likely, but then again, show him the money and anything’s possible.
In an interesting footnote, had Rahman not signed with King and had he gone ahead with the defence against Lewis, he would have been stripped of the World Boxing Council (WBC) version of his belt. The WBC upheld an appeal by Tyson (its number one contender) that rematch clauses are illegal as far as WBC rules go. David Tua (the International Boxing Federation’s number one contender) lodged a similar appeal with the IBF.
Had Rahman gone the Lewis route he could also have been stripped of the IBF version of the title.
Ironically, Lewis’s best bet at regaining one of his lost titles would be for the WBC or IBF to strip Rahman and include the Englishman in the mix for the vacant title. For that to happen, however, Rahman needs to break their rules. Something he has not yet done.