Rahman Still Gets the Jab in on Lewis

You could say it was a once-in-a-lifetime shot. That might not be fair. Think of it as the shot of a lifetime.

When Hasim Rahman landed that punch outside Johannesburg, South Africa, that sent Lennox Lewis to the deck and upended the heavyweight division, some saw it as a lucky punch against an unprepared fighter.

But it’s never that simple. Eight years of running, jumping rope, hitting and sparring have brought Rahman to this moment.

He has a rematch with Lewis on Nov. 17 at Mandalay Bay in Las Vegas. If he wins, he could become part of a Mike Tyson fight that people would actually pay to see. If he loses, he’s a guy without a TV deal or much star power, either.

Boxing is almost always about looking ahead, sometimes to matches that have no possibility of being realized. Rahman seemed to take as many Tyson questions as Lewis questions during a media availability Tuesday at his training camp in Big Bear.

Right now, Rahman is loving all of it. He grins at the prospect of facing Tyson and snatches opportunities to make fun of Lewis. All while holding the World Boxing Council and International Boxing Federation championship belts he took from Lewis.

“One thing they can’t take away is what I did in South Africa,” Rahman said. “I took matters into my own hands, and I still feel like matters will be in my own hands.”

Oh, those hands. They’re huge. Shake hands with him and it feels as if your hand is lost in a cave. The left hand has a scar on it. The right hand probably has one of Lewis’ teeth embedded in it from that blow in the fifth round.

A fluke?

Rahman says it wasn’t just that one punch. How about the series of left jabs before it that sent Lewis running into the corner? Or the two rounds he won out of the first four?

Lewis was too flabby?

He weighed only three pounds more than the 250 pounds he carried when he beat Francois Botha last year.

Lewis was huffing and puffing and out of shape?.

“I see Lennox breathing hard in all his fights,” Rahman said. “I’ve seen him breathing hard when he fought Evander Holyfield the first and second time, when he was supposed to be in magnificent shape.”

Rahman should have Lewis’ full attention this time. Before their first fight, Lewis spent time filming a scene for the “Ocean’s 11” remake while Rahman trained in South Africa’s high altitude.Now, Lewis appears eager to fight immediately: He wrestled with Rahman (and was pushed over a table) during an August TV taping, and had to be separated from Rahman during a news conference the next day.

“I think I’ve got a permanent spot [under his skin],” Rahman said. “I think I just win all the war of words we’ve had. And I already won the war we had in South Africa. Every time he comes up against me, I feel like I win.”

So now it’s much more personal. But Rahman said it felt that way to him the last time.

“To me it seemed kind of personal, because all anybody said was Lennox is going to knock [me] out inside of two, three, four, five rounds,” Rahman said. “When somebody is telling you they’re going to knock you out, it becomes a bit personal. If it doesn’t become personal then something is wrong with the fighter.”

What’s Rahman’s prediction for Nov. 17? “I think I will knock Lennox Lewis out.”

Of course, boxing wouldn’t be boxing without contradictions. Rahman’s co-manager, Stan Hoffman, said of Lewis’ strategy in the rematch: “Our concern is that he makes an ugly fight out of it. Ugly, grabbing, running, pawing.”

Asked a couple of minutes later what they would do if Lewis made it ugly, Hoffman said: “We would prefer it.”

In the first fight, Lewis’ hands were often at or below his belt, leaving him wide open to Rahman’s jabs. Now, Rahman sounds less like a boxer and more like a pest exterminator: “I want to get rid of Lennox Lewis.”

Another loss would nearly take Lewis out of the heavyweight equation. He has even talked about retiring. He wouldn’t be missed.

But would boxing benefit if forced to resume it’s co-dependent relationship with Tyson?

Asked whom he would want next Rahman said: “Tyson.” Tyson can be “controlled so easily,” Rahman said and is “susceptible to being knocked out.”

Rahman’s upset of Lewis as a 20-1 underdog brought inevitable comparisons to Buster Douglas’ knockout of Tyson. Now the challenge is for Rahman to avoid going out like Douglas, who ballooned and was last seen on the sports landscape flat on his back 10 years ago, unwilling or unable to get up against Holyfield.

“That’s not me,” Rahman said. “I’m looking to go out and train hard and compete.”

In other words, he doesn’t want to be a one-hit wonder.

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J.A. Adande can be reached at: j.a.adande@latimes.com