BERT SUGAR POST-FIGHT RECAP

August 14th, 2006 - by Bert Sugar

Back in the days of the Cold War a pun making the rounds went something like this: "A Russian named Rudolf was arguing with his wife whether the precipitation coming down on their hut was rain or snow. Rudolf insisted it was rain; his wife, snow. Finally, Rudolf went outside to investigate and, sure of his findings, marched back into the house and announced to his wife, 'Rudolf, the Red, knows rain, dear." (Groan)

If Rudolf were around today watching the rising fortunes of Russian boxers, he would march into the house and announce to his wife, "Rudolf, the ex-Red, knows Russian heavyweights who reign, dear." (Double Groan!!)

For last Saturday night in a bout ballyhooed as "America's Last Line of Defense," Oleg Maskaev gave Russian boxing fans a lot to cheer about and American boxing fans a lot to groan about as he beat Hasim Rahman for the WBC heavyweight championship. And gave the boxing world four--count 'em, four--heavyweight champions whose names are Klitschko, Valuev, Liakhovich and Maskaev, a foursome which sounds more like a Russian law firm than boxing champions.

For American fight fans, who, consider the heavyweight championship their birthright, it was bad enough when one non-American stepped in to break the line of American heavyweights--like a Bob Fitzsimmons, a Tommy Burns, a Max Schmeling, a Primo Carnera, an Ingemar Johansson, or a Lennox Lewis. But now, groan, the are four non-American heavyweight champions, courtesy of the four Alphabet-Soup groups who have entered the names of their heavyweight champions in the Cyrillic characters of the Russian alphabet--using enough letters to make Vanna White collapse under their weight.

How in the name of John L. Sullivan, Jack Dempsey, Joe Louis, Rocky Marciano, and Muhammad Ali could this possibly have happened? Maybe it has something to do with the fact that the former Soviet Republics concentrated on amateur boxing while the U.S. treated its amateur program as if it suffered from a bad case of leprosy, with Bright's Disease thrown in for good measure. Or maybe it's the dynamics of today's heavyweight division, with heavyweights no longer the 189 pounds of a Marciano, or the 206 of a Joe Louis, or even the 212 of a Muhammad Ali. Today's heavyweights are mostly dreadnaughts, their weights somewhere in the 250-lb. and up neighborhood, big enough for talented youngsters to choose pro football over boxing--and qualifying any NFL middle linebacker to be considered the best American heavyweight not boxing.

Or maybe it's just that our American heavyweights aren't that good, as Hasim Rahman proved Saturday night.

To consider Hasim Rahman "America's Last Line of Defense" is, off his performance Saturday night, like considering the Maginot Line France's last line of defense in World War II, Rahman crumbling just as surely and as completely as France's did.

Here was Rahman, for three rounds, using his stiff left jab to beat a steady rat-a-tat on Maskaev's features. Then, for reasons known only to him, he performed down to expectations by forsaking his jab and going right-hand crazy in an attempt to knock Maskaev out. And, not incidentally, let Maskaev back into the fight.

Maskaev took advantage of Rahman's strategy, or lack thereof, by throwing his right hand, the same right hand that had knocked Rahman into the laps of the HBO announcers seven years ago, and alternating it with a huge left hook for good measure. By the eighth the battle had become one of attrition with the stamina-challenged Rahman looking more "attrit'd."

By the tenth Rahman was totally exhausted, his punches those of a man underwater, his footwork that of a man wan walking through quicksand. Then, in the 12th, coming out of a clinch Maskaev caught Rahman with a booming left, followed by a right, and Rahman, after trying desperately, a la John Ruiz, to hold on, floundered backwards into the ropes. And down. Up at the count of eight, the soon-to-be-ex-champion was all but defenseless. And as Maskaev teed off with right-after-right, referee Jay Nady stepped in to end the bout with but 43 seconds to go.

Not only did the result cement Rahman's legacy as that of being boxing's version of Milli Vanilli, a one-hit wonder--that one hit being his one-punch knockout of Lennox Lewis--but also left all four heavyweight championships in the hands of four Eastern Europeans from former Russian Republics.

It also left American fight fans to sit in the waiting room of the Russian law firm of Klitschko, Valuev, Liakhovich and Maskaev, hoping against hope for the arrival of the next "Great American Hope"--a hope that, judging by the talent out there, might he a long time a coming, Groan! And Double Groan!!