Rahman wins no contest. Hasim beat Lennox with a punch from nowhere and that's more than Lacy ever accomplished.
Rahman beat Lewis. He also beat Sanders, and in the eyes of most, Tua. That makes it a pretty easy choice.
lacy with all his amatuer pedigree was a flash in the pan as a pro matched realy well to get his title but the belt was his pinacle while rahman rise to a title took a much different path much more diffcult fights prior to earning his title with tua, maskev they were titlest but you look back lacy in way altough totaly differnt fighters is remminacent of mark breland in the fact you expected much more while rahman is more a symbol of perserverance an hard work eventualy paying off rahmans fights are abundantly more memorable as well
Rahman wins this one clearly. According to most on here Rahman is an ATG for KOing in style the man at HW, Lewis.
You are right, he did. But he wasn't the SprMW World Champ. And if you aren't the world champ, you are either a contender, gatekeeper, or fodder. I've stopped referring to mere titlist as Champions. It's not to disrespect them, but with 5 belts now...gotta take a stand somewhere, sometime.
Both quality and underated champs. Lacy will be remembered for beating Vanderpool more convincingly than Hopkins could and making 5 or 6 defences of his title and unfortunetly suffering a moral destroying loss to the best ever performance to take place at 12 st and unfortunetly suffering a torn rotator cuff in his next fight. Rahman will be remembered for beating an out of shape Lewis (which Vitali Klitschko couldn't do) beating Saunders quicker than Vitali Klitschko could, only losing in his prime to a guy who stopped Vitali in the amatures and the greatest ever heavyweight not to win a title and forcing Vitali Klitschko into a four year retirement when he was mandatory. Both have a place in history but Rahman edges it. If Lacy hadn't fought that faced Calzaghe and torn his rotator cuff (a terrible injury for a boxer that was a reacurring problem for him after that) he would have went on to achieve a lot.
I think Lacy had more than one belt, him and Calzaghe was for the unification and the ring belt. I like lacy more but Rahman takes it because he was linear heavyweight champ, hell Lewis was a top 10 ATG heavy. He didnt even get it the easy way by beating a fading guy or a weak link like moorer.
All Kan Norton did was beat Ali and he became an ATG, plus, a BHOF'er. Rahman has done more than that.:good He annihilated an ATG with one punch to take the title of ATG..:yep Can Lacy say that?
Im tired of people shitting on Lacy and the more I think about it the more I think his decline is physical and not mental. This crap about Calzaghe ruined him mentally is just that, crap. Immediately after that fight he took on a good fighter in Typsko and had a great fight despite a serious injury. After that fight it was all down hill. If he was ruined mentally by Calzaghe, he wouldnt have performed well against Vitali. Further more he has struggled with some really **** guys. Otis Griffin was a gift decision, it wasnt televised as far as I know but I saw it in person and his hometown booed him. I didnt see the Smith fight but for him to loose almost every round in his hometown in a small venue (that only fits 1500 or so people), it must have been really bad. I dont believe that someone who was on the olympic team and a former champion is going to be so intimidated by those low quality opponents that he just folds mentally. I also dont see how he can beat Vitali with an injury but then supposedly is so mentally ruined he cant beat Griffin or Smith. He tries in his fights, he just cant connect worth ****, when before he had no trouble connecting. And when he does connect he has no power at all. The shoulder injury ruined him IMO.