Johannesburg - Last week Lennox Lewis, the former heavyweight champion of the world, tweeted: “On this day (April 21st) I lost to Hasim Rahman and his #8FigurePunch in South Africa! #RevengeIsBestServedCold”.
The “Eight Figure Punch” was called so, explained Rahman to The Tonight Show host Jay Leno in 2001, “because that punch enabled us to make eight figures for the next fight”.
The right cross that caught Lewis flush on the jaw resulted in what Ring magazine called the “Knockout of the Year” and the “Upset of the Year”. Lewis had been unbeaten for over six years. Rahman surrendered his titles back to Lewis later that year in his very next fight, making a guesstimated $17-million for the fight.
Four years later, Rahman was world champion again, but this time by default after Vitali Klitschko kept delaying their title fight because of injury and was stripped of his title. Rahman is still fighting at the age of 42, but may have had no finer night than that early morning in Brakpan in 2001.
The two-week build-up to the Lewis-Rahman fight at Carnival City was chaotic and full of enough nonsense to keep it interesting. Lewis was the star and acted as such, coming in late to a fight after playing a part in the George Clooney movie Oceans Eleven. There was a worry he was leaving his acclimatisation late.
Lewis arrived an hour late for his first press conference, with his business manager, Adrian Ogun, saying it was because of jetlag and the South African Boxing Commission of Control’s medical examination. Except that the SA Boxing men had been waiting for him since 11am and “…would we be stupid enough to schedule a medical examination that clashed with a major press conference?”
Stan Hoffman, Rahman’s manager, had picked up a R3500 speeding fine in their rush to get to Brakpan from Johannesburg in time.
Lewis was charming, speaking of the “magical moment” of being in Africa. Rahman, not a natural speaker, kept his chat to a minimum. There was little smack talk. It was downright polite, except for Frank Maloney, Lewis’ promoter, who described local promoter Rodney Berman, who put on the “Thunder in Africa” fight, as “out of his depth”. Berman had spent around R14-million, most of it on advertising, to put on the biggest fight South Africa may ever host.
Before dawn on that mild East Rand morning, Rahman had downed Lewis. Phil Nyamane, The Star’s boxing writer, jumped out of his seat next to me and began shouting: “I told you! I told you!” On the other side of the ring, Etienne Rothbart snapped the picture of Lewis flat on his back, a photograph that was used around the world. The eight- figure punch that rocked boxing in 2001.
The Star