{"id":703350,"date":"2026-07-21T12:39:08","date_gmt":"2026-07-21T12:39:08","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/703350\/"},"modified":"2026-07-21T12:39:08","modified_gmt":"2026-07-21T12:39:08","slug":"hasim-rahman-says-one-heavyweight-stands-alone-as-the-best-ever-ali-would-be-too-small-for-him","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/703350\/","title":{"rendered":"Hasim Rahman says one heavyweight stands alone as the best ever: &#8220;Ali would be too small for him&#8221;"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>Former world champion Hasim Rahman believes that, in any era of heavyweight boxing, one man would solidify himself at the top of the tree.<\/p>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/www.theguardian.com\/sport\/2001\/nov\/18\/boxing.theobserver\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener nofollow\">\u2018The Rock\u2019 is best known for his monumental upset victory over Lennox Lewis in 2001<\/a>, when a stunning fifth-round finish saw him claim the WBC and IBF titles.<\/p>\n<p>Before their heavyweight encounter, many had questioned the logic behind Lewis\u2019 training camp in Las Vegas, given that he was to defend his titles in South Africa.<\/p>\n<p>Not only that, but \u2018The Lion\u2019 afforded himself little time to adjust to the African nation\u2019s high altitude, with his performance ultimately reflecting a lack of preparation.<\/p>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/boxingnewsonline.net\/features\/on-this-day-lennox-lewis-gets-sweet-revenge-over-hasim-rahman-in-las-vegas\/\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">Lewis did, however, manage to produce a much improved display in their immediate rem<\/a>atch, reclaiming his titles with a ruthless fourth-round stoppage.<\/p>\n<p>As a result, Rahman has since named his former foe as the greatest heavyweight of all time, above the likes of <a href=\"https:\/\/boxingnewsonline.net\/boxer\/muhammad-ali\/\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">Muhammad Ali<\/a>, Jack Dempsey and Rocky Marciano.<\/p>\n<p>Unlike those three all-time greats, Rahman told <a href=\"https:\/\/www.bbc.co.uk\/programmes\/p0756jcy\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener nofollow\">BBC Radio 5 Live<\/a>\u00a0that Lewis not only possessed impeccable ring intelligence but could also utilise his physical attributes to a much greater extent than others.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cI\u2019m finding it hard to put somebody ahead of him. In any era \u2026 I just really don\u2019t know who could beat him.<\/p>\n<p>\u201c[Ali, Dempsey, Marciano\u2026] Those guys were too small. I mean, Ali was too small for George Foreman back then, when he was a smaller version of Big George, so how could he deal with someone like Lennox \u2013 who is huge and can move, and can use his distance well?<\/p>\n<p>\u201cI think it\u2019s really unfair to compare eras, but I just don\u2019t know who could deal with that man.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Lewis was a three-time world heavyweight champion, and up until Oleksandr Usyk repeated the feat in 2024, was the last undisputed heavyweight champion following his win over Evander Holyfield in 1999.<\/p>\n<p>After defeating Rahman, Lewis also scored an eighth-round finish over Mike Tyson and ended his illustrious career by stopping Vitali Klitschko in six rounds.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Former world champion Hasim Rahman believes that, in any era of heavyweight boxing, one man would solidify himself&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":689084,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[41],"tags":[2560,101,56,54,55],"class_list":["post-703350","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-boxing","tag-boxing","tag-sports","tag-uk","tag-united-kingdom","tag-unitedkingdom"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/703350","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=703350"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/703350\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/689084"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=703350"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=703350"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=703350"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}