Tua-Rahman: There is room at the top
Janne Romppainen
19.03 - Just two weeks ago it seemed like the top of the heavyweight division included two fighters who were well above the rest. Lennox Lewis was to be the champion and Wladimir Klitschko was thought to be his only real challenger. But things changed dramatically as Klitschko suffered a setback at the hands of the veteran Corrie Sanders. Now it looks like there are no plausible fights left for Lewis and he is most probably about to retire soon. Behind him there is a whole bunch of assorted fighters who are willing to fill the gap he leaves behind him.
Enter Hasim Rahman and David Tua. The two represent the experienced compartment among the best contenders of the division and at 29th of March they meet each other in a twelve-round IBF eliminator fight. The winner of the contest will be the manadory challenger for Chris Byrd’s IBF title belt.
The fight is pretty much a crossroads battle. They both are in a situation where they can’t afford to lose if they want to get a shot at the title anytime soon. Rahman comes to the bout with two losses in his last two fights. Third strike and he would be out from the business for long. On the other hand Tua crushed the ex-champ Michael Moorer in thirty seconds in his last fight creating some interest again. But before that he was clearly outpointed by Byrd and had looked less-than-spectacular against Fres Oquendo. Tua has always been a crowd-pleasing fighter because of his one-punch power but if he looks as slow and clumsy this time as he did in those two fights, the audience might lose its patience. So they both need to win and preferably impressively.
As most fight fans know, the fight is a rematch between these two gladiators. They fought for the first time back in 1998 when Tua defeated Rahman via controversial 10th-round stoppage after clocking The Rock with an illegal punch after the bell in the ninth round. Much has happened after that match-up when they both were upcoming prospects.
As the winner of the bout Tua went on to challenge Lewis for his WBC and IBF titles. Lewis didn’t give him a chance however but boxed cautiously his way to a lopsided decision victory. After that Tua came back to the IBF tournament. He was able to knock out Danell Nicholson but in the finals he lost to Byrd. If he gets past Rahman he can hope for a rematch.
Rahman on the other hand has experienced the top and the bottom after the Tua fight. Shortly afterwards he was blasted out of the ring by Oleg Maskaev and many immediately wrote him off as a contender. The Rock came back to win the new WBO champ Corrie Sanders and capture his WBU title. He was then chosen as a warm-up type of an opponent for Lewis in 2001 as the latter was getting ready for a proposed fight against Mike Tyson. As we know, a 14-1 underdog Rahman produced a great surprise by knocking Lewis out with a tremendous right-hander in the fifth round. In the rematch he had no chance to repeat his victory as Lewis dominated him en route to a fourth round knockout. Rahman went on to meet Evander Holyfield in a WBA title eliminator but after seven fierce rounds he was forced to quit after getting a horrendous bruise to his forehead.
The script of the fight seems very obvious. Rahman should fight the only way that makes sense against Tua. That means that he should use his superior reach and movement, to box Tua from outside and target for a decision victory. In the progress he should avoid what happened last time which was that Tua finally got close to him and took care of the business, illegally or not. Stay far and don’t take chances is probably the instructions Rahman will get from his trainers. Tua only fights one way, he presses forwards and throws slow but devastating bombs with both hands. He probably hopes to land some body punches to bring Rahman’s hands down and find a place for his frightening left hook.
The most common pick for the fight is that Tua will sooner or later catch Rahman again and bring the fight to a dramatic conclusion. That might be, but personally I don’t believe so. After all, Rahman was able to dominate the matters for long five years ago and in my opinion Tua has regressed in the time being. Tua doensn’t throw enough punches anymore to slow his opponents down. He has promised us to go back to his old, more aggressive style though. I believe it when I see it.
One weird misconception seems to be that Rahman has a weak chin. In my opinion there is nothing that would prove it. In the first Tua fight, he was never down even though he had to take a barrage of punches from the Tuaman. Losing to Oleg Maskaev is unimpressive for a world-class fighter all right, but for whatever are his faults, Maskaev is a very good puncher and the right hand that got to Rahman was monstrous. Also Lewis’ right was one of the best he has ever thrown so in my eyes there is not much to be ashamed of. Rahman was also able to rumble toe-to-toe with Holyfield so Tua won’t walk over him easily either. Rahman has a decent punch himself, some speed and skill which should be enough give Tua trouble.
A fighter with Tua’s chin and power always has a good chance of winning but this time I don’t believe he will. If he is able to go back to his old style being an aggressive fighter with a high punching rate, then it could be a different story. But for what we know about them now, I’ll go with Rahman on a unanimous decision.
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