10 years ago Lewis KOd by Rahman the biggest upset since Douglas-Tyson

A lot of people expected Lewis to lose or have trouble in South Africa because of how he was preparing for the fight. They saw the distractions and lack of focus and they said this guy is going to lose. With Tyson people saw the same thing but they still thought he was unbeatable. I remember watching the fight and didnt even raise an eyebrow when Lewis was knocked out.

 

I am South Africa and live in Johanessburg.

When that fight happened, literally nobody knew about it or cared.

 

Rahman trained hard for the fight. He went to South Africa early to acclimate to the altitude. Lewis stayed in California filming a movie Oceans 11. Lewis showed zero respect for Rahman. He fought like he sparred during training which was also very uncharacteristic for Lewis, laying on the ropes, being cocky.

He deserved what he got just as Tyson did for not preparing properly, only people believe Lewis didnt prepare for the fight whereas most people on here think Douglas beat the best version of Tyson.

 

Watched it live, and yes the South African people were very much behind Rahman. He had been there a good while and made casual fans & greeted a lot of people during the training camp.

He fought a real good fight, controlled things with the jab well. As soon as I saw the jab giving Lewis trouble, and him being backed up into the ropes I figured something big might happen, not long after that Thunder in the Jungle !

Too bad Rock's career (mostly due to his lack of conditioning) has been such a roller coaster after this fight.

 

Yeah Rahman wasnt a great fighter and he did win the title but I think he could have done more had he been more disciplined in his conditioning. He also fell for Don Kings BS and made some bad decisions. In the beginning of his career he was promoted by Cedric Kushner and trained by Tommy Brooks and had a good team behind him. Right before facing Tua in the fist fight he split with Brooks and brought in Ziddell and went on to work with a 100 different trainers and lacked any kind of consistency in career..

 

:good Good analysis indeed Lefthook31. As a fan of the Rock, it's been a real struggle. I like the guy & I like when he fights with his mind on the fight which is rare. He really could of done so much more, when working his jab & staying on a gameplan he typically did well in fights.

What really drags him down also is his slowness. He has gotten slower too over the years. I think he spends too much time lifting weights as opposed to endurance & ring work.

 

Agreed thats exactly what made him kind of ordinary in my mind. He was very slow. The extra weight and lack of conditioning didnt help matters. In the beginning of his career I always thought of him as a blue collar type fighter, because he was in great condition and just kept working and grinding down his opponents. His jab was certainly his best asset.

 

Exactly - what's sad is I've watched many fights where he hardly even throws the jab just resorts to head hunting. Those long arms & power could have really stayed at the top of the heavyweight division for all these years.

Although a draw, I tell you a good performance was the 1st fight with Toney. He really had a nice gameplan then, good fight overall imo. And the aggressive attack he gave Kali Meehan - where is that Rock hiding?!?

 

Actually surprised the ESB main page hasn't featured a "10 years ago today" article. This was pretty major stuff! Turned the heavyweight division upside down & shook it up.

 

Lewis was begging to get KO'd and Rahman could punch. A black mark on Lewis's record for sure despite the reversal (and what a KO that was). I agree that one of Rahman's big weaknesses was his lack of speed, he relied on lifting weights yet he did not use his strength advantages much in the ring.

 

Very true - He only used the jab & strength well against Toney in the 1st fight. A determined Rock could have/should have defeated Ruiz, Tua (x2), and Evander. A lot of his losses are silly - and the draws annoy me too. Just a tough, tough guy to be a fan of.

 

Just out of curiosity, were you a fan of his before he beat Lewis or did you become one after? Sounds like before to me, but as I said, I'm like of curious.

 

Still remember waking up and finding out on Fightnews about what had happened. Total shock.