Most underrated turn around in heavyweight history

I agree, in that sense it is a bigger turn around.

You're not wrong. Rahman getting KO'd badly by Maskaev at the end of 1999, and coming back so he's KOing the champion Lewis in April 2001 is a relatively quick and dramatic recovery. Not sure how anyone can argue with that.
I wouldn't go as far as you do in calling it "unique" though. I mean, there are similar instances.

 

I know I'm missing the OP's point but Holyfield's turning around of round 10 in the first Bowe fight from being a rag doll against a bigger man to having him in serious trouble all within the space of a minute is a hell of a turn around. From that same rag doll to the man who went on to beat the same man who had dominated him the next year deserves mention, even if I'm off topic and saying what has been said often before.

Ali, getting his jaw broken and beaten by Norton, only to come back and kayo the monster who flattened that same Norton is also up there. And he did it by systematically breaking Foreman down rather than landing a single, albeit devastating, punch against a tired, under-trained and over-confident champion. So for me, that trumps Rahman's comeback. Again, I'm missing the point as Ali's turnaround of his fortunes vs Foreman is anything but underrated. But this thread, and the kudos awarded to Rahman (rightly so, too), shows just what a special fighter Ali really was.

 

IMO Rahman was the worst heavyweight champion in history

 

Certainly one of the worst.

 

Oleg Maskaev came back from more crushing KO loses than anyone I can think of.
KOed by Oliver McCall, David Tua, Kirk Johnson, T-Rex Sanders, Lance Whitaker, came
back from these set backs to KO Rahman a second time and win a title.

 

I think Lennox Lewis is often grossly overrated.
So, for me, I can't say Rahman is at all overrated.

I give both Lewis and Rahman credit for coming back so well from devastating KOs though. I give credit to every fighter that ever did that. There are dozens, hundreds even, at least, who did it at world level. But there are many many more good fighters who suffered KO defeats like that and were never the same again.

 

The credit given to Rahman for his KO of the complacent Lewis is oftentimes overemphasized. As demonstrated by the result of their rematch, in which Lewis was focused, Rahman was limited as a Boxer, albeit one with a bit of power and a puncher's chance.

Rahman was also unable to recreate results similar to the Lewis I KO, against men who were on the lower end of the world-class-spectrum, which leads me to doubt that, in another 100, 200, 300+ contests against a tuned-in Lewis, he could pull out a KO like that.

 

man-machine answered for me, in that Rahman never replicated his KO of Lewis, against any other opponent. Same can be said of McCall poleaxing Lewis. I think of Lennox Lewis as the most overrated fighter in history.