11.08.06 – By Vanessa McConnell, Photos by Chris McGee / Mightygloves.com – The weigh-in for the Heavyweights Hasim “The Rock” Rahman and Oleg Maskaev for Saturday’s upcoming revenge rematch, also known as, “America’s Last Line of Defense,” took place on Thursday, inside Caesars Palace Augusta Ballroom, in Las Vegas.
Both fighters were on time and ready to get it on in Saturday nights fight. Hasim Rahman and his entire family and team made their presence well known. Rahman walked in holding his daughter, as the other family members followed closely behind him. He even had a hype-man, with a gold crown on his head, screaming and shouting “Boxing Gangsta” and other things, as they walked in. While they headed for the seats, one guy said to the team, “come on, let’s tear this front row up.”
They came in full force for Rahman, most of them had t-shirts on that said “Team Rahman From the Ghetto to HBO” on the back. They were giving away Everlast hats and t-shirts to the media and fans. No one was more proud and represented Rahman’s camp the most than his kids. The most vocal one of them all was the out spoken hype-man. He shouted during the entire weigh-in and it was nothing nice. When Mike Tyson showed up it was a frenzy. The fighters, promoters and Mike hit the stage for the weigh-in the pandemonium was on again and our famous hype-man took over. He yelled “Ain’t no friends with the Russians, Oleg is dead, Major whore for USSR,” and “U chump,” as Maskaev stepped on the scale. Maskaev weighed in at 238 lbs.
As Rahman stepped on the scale, the hype-man yelled “High Power Champ.” It was hard to hear the weight over the hype-man but we all thought we heard 235 lbs. Now it was Tyson’s turn. If I didn’t know any better, I would think Tyson was having a flash back, as the crowd was cheering and screaming. However, Tyson faked, as to take the scale before pausing to realize it wasn’t his fight. As he nearly took that step, someone pointed to the stage next to the scale and he snapped out of it. He took to the tip of the stage and brought Rahman and Maskaev up for a mean face off. As Tyson held their gloves up, the hype-man got started again. He yelled out “Go back to Russia.” Maskaev looked over at him with a smile and winked. The hype-man replied, “No need to smile, on the 12th you gonna be frowning.”
Maskaev blew him off, as both fighters and teams make their exits.
33-year-old Rahman is from Baltimore and is America’s “only current world heavyweight champion” defending his title one day before his world title anniversary. Rahman previously defeated Monte Barrett last year on August 13 for the world heavyweight title with a 12-round unanimous decision. Now a year later he is defending his title to Maskaev of Kazakhstan to keep more than just his belt. His “honor, pride and and country” is on the line.
For a while now “natives from the former Soviet Union have dominated the division” and it’s all up to the last heavyweight standing to keep America in the game. Rahman nearly lost his title to James Toney in March when the fight went to the judges score card, he won the fight by a draw. Now it’s time to put his 11 year professional career and two time championship reigns to work.
The world will be watching this weekend to see who gains or retains the world title. Only time will tell now who will be the WBC Heavyweight Champion of the world. It all goes down this Saturday, August 12 at the Thomas & Mack Center in Las Vegas and live on HBO-PPV. Tickets for “America’s Last Line of Defense” presented by Top Rank, Dennis Rappaport Productions, Caesars Palace and Wynn Las Vegas are still available through www.unlvtickets.com or visit www.hbo.com for more information.