How good was Hasim Rahman ??

This is the guy who beat the ultimate superheavyweight monster, with a single punch!

If you cant rate him that highly, then the whole superheavyweight theory, is thrown into question!

 

I think we can all agree that he had a very erratic career with drastically differing results and ups and downs. He did enough to make his mark in the game but probably not hall of fame material.

 

One thing that does get overlooked is that there hadn't been a heavyweight champion who took up boxing as late as Rahman did since Marciano, if I'm not mistaken.

As such, I'm not surprised an experienced octopus like Ruiz was able to handle him. Any old wrestler will tell you leverage beats raw strength any day. :deal

 

Rahman's natural physical abilities and style which suites these attributes along with his workrate I feel would put him in the mix in any era. I doubt he'd capture a world title in some the stronger era's of heavyweight boxing unless he was lucky enough to get a favorable matchup or was able to score a big upset but as I said I think he'd be a contender in any era.

 

Ruiz was just arguably better than Rahman?, i don't wanna turn this into a Ruiz thread, but Ruiz beat Holyfield, Rahman was stopped by him, and Ruiz also beat Golota, Kirk Johnson, Holy, and should have git the decision against Valuev, but an American fighting a Russian over-seas, expect to get ripped off if the fight is close, but that's a topic for another day...

Better yet Rahman could not figure out how to handle a blown up 5-9 middleweight in Toney he had 2 matches against fatty and NO WINS..:verysad

 

The boxing HOF is such a cheap watered down political joke, don't be surprised if they open the door for him:-(

WTF, is Stallone in for:nut, making 5 cheesy Rocky movies:nut, ..

Then Deniro should be in for the Raging bull which was 10 times a better movie, with way better acting.....

 

Never was a fan but he had some good attributes that I think his ring smarts negated

Nothing was more frustrating watching him dominate Toney with the jab only to get sucked in to an inside fight on the ropes where he gave away all advantages to fight Toney where he had a chance. He could box Maskaev but got sucked into a brawl and lost his WBC title

Reminded me of a Jermaine Taylor type who had all this upside but could never put it together and had stamina issues.

Highlighs would be blasting Lewis, destroying Meehan who I had beating Brewster and I thought he beat Tua the second time

He has losses but thats what happens when you fight the best guys, lock hall of fame guys like Holyfield Lewis and Wlad and even came close to getting in with Vitali. He fought Ruiz and Barret. Only guys he didnt fight were Byrd Valuev Golota and Brewster

he tested himself and he succeeded 2 time champion once as the true champ

 

I guess it depends on your perspective because in my opinion Ruiz never beat Holyfield or Golota and he didnt stop Rahman, not sure where you got that. Kirk Johnson was always **** IMO, him losing to Ruiz was not really a surprise to me. Then again I thought Rahman beat Toney so I guess we'll have to disagree because we clearly have totally different perspectives on most of the fights you mentioned.

Two other fights that bug me about Rahman are the Maskaev fights. Maskaev was as much an in and outer as Rahman if not more and he didnt have the sturdiest set of whiskers either. For Rahman to be this big, strong, hard punching guy to get whacked late by Maskaev not once but twice was pretty troubling to anyone who thought Rahman was something special.

 

He didn't dwarf middleweight James Toney....

 

Rahman seemed to me to be a classic "hot and cold" fighter. When he was motivated, he could walk through fire to win, but was content to cruise along most of the time. Big power, imho.

 

Be that as it may, getting into the HOF is still an honor, if even a watered down one. If nobody new was ever inducted then the HOF would be a dusty abandoned old building with few visitors. That said, I doubt Rahman will get in unless he has a huge fan base somewhere that we don't know about who gives him the votes.

Well for whatever its worth, those movies sold well and turned a lot of people's attention to boxing, including a few young men who ultimately were inspired to take up the sport after viewing them. Vinnie Pazienza for example said that he saw the first Rocky movie when he was 16 years old and immediately started going to a boxing gym after being inspired by it. I think that warrants some recognition.

Well Raging bull was also inspired by a true story. Stallone had to come up with a lot of his own ideas. Frankly I thought Burgess Merdyth, Talia Shire, Carl Weathers, Mr. T, and even Stallone himself were fantastic in those films.. Though I agree that Deniro and and Pesci are tough acts to follow..

 

The Ruiz - Holyfield series of fights were fairly odd. Ruiz actually won the first fight, but the decision went to Holyfield. Holyfield really won the second fight, but the decision went to Ruiz and in the third fight the judges actually got it right with Ruiz winning the fight and getting the decision.

 

The 1st Rocky movie released 1976, was awesome i grant you that, then after that they all nosedived, to the point it was almost comical especially when you see a middle aged punch drunk Balboa, rolling around in an alley against Tommy the mullet Gunn, cmon really:tired..

My friend a real HOF IS MAJOR LEAGUE BASEBALL, :deal, all professional sports should follow the strict guidelines that sport follows, it makes more of an honor for those getting in, only the best of the best!!!!

 

I personally like Rocky III the best. Clubber Lang was an excellent and intriguing villain. The charity wrestling match between Rock and Thunderlips was hilarious. And Creed coming back to train Balboa was a fun and creative concept. I agree that Rocky V sucked.. The standards of the boxing hall of fame are probably not as stern as they should be and there are some men who probably don't belong there. But each generation has to have some inductees or the place would be a ghost town within a decade.

 

Bump.