STAMFORD, Conn. (May 7, 2007) – A 10-round heavyweight bout pitting former two-time WBC heavyweight champion Hasim “The Rock” Rahman (41-6-2, 33 KOs) against former NABA champion Taurus Sykes (25-3-1, 7 KOs) headlines the next Fight Night on VERSUS in collaboration with Top Rank Boxing on Thursday, June 14 at 9 p.m. ET from the Main Street Armory in Rochester, New York..
Rahman will be making his first appearance since losing the WBC title to Oleg Maskaev on a 12th round TKO last August. He first emerged as a heavyweight champion when he knocked out Lennox Lewis in the fifth round of their first clash in 2001. Lennox took the title back in their rematch.
Also featured will be Kid Diamond (24-1-1, 14 KOs), of Las Vegas defending the NABF Lightweight championship against Columbia’s Jose Leonardo Cruz (11-2-2, 7 KOs). The two lightweights first met in the 2000 Olympic Games with Kid Diamond emerging victorious. Diamond, whose real name is Almzabek Raiymkulov, is a native of Kyrgystan. In his last fight, Sept. 14, 2006 in Las Vegas, which was televised by VERSUS, Diamond scored a 7th round TKO against Jairo Ramirez.
VERSUS (VERSUS.com) celebrates real competition in all its forms. The network is the national cable home of the National Hockey League (NHL) and the Stanley Cup Playoffs as well as best-in-class events like The Tour de France, the America’s Cup, the Dakar Rally, the Professional Bull Riders (PBR), Professional Boxing, the Boston Marathon and Davis Cup. Now in more than 72 million homes, the network features the best field sports programming on television and is a destination for sports fans, athletes and sportsmen to find exclusive, competitive events that audiences can’t find elsewhere. The network offers unique, competition-themed original programming and is the exclusive home of Survivor in syndication. VERSUS, a wholly owned company of Comcast Corporation (NASDAQ: CMCSA, CMCSK), is distributed via cable systems and satellite operators throughout the United States.