Welcome to Boxing’s Penthouse

Hasim Rahman was looking to make something of his troubled life eight years ago when he walked into the dilapidated gym.

Located on the second floor of a multipurpose building in downtrodden East Baltimore, the 58-year-old gym has two makeshift rings and three speed bags, all held together by about a half-mile of duct tape.

The secondary ring is a plywood base covered by a carpet and topped by a shabby gray mat. Boxing posters are taped everywhere, most of them covering holes left by fallen drywall.

This is where a heavyweight champion was born. More importantly, this is where Hasim Rahman turned his life around.

Before he discovered the joy of boxing, Rahman learned life on the street. His arrest-record included auto theft and distribution of drugs, and although few of the cases ever made it to court, it became clear that Rahman was on the wrong course.

Boxing was the answer.

Louis Butler, a light heavyweight who trained at the gym, regularly sparred with Rahman on the playground in the early 1990s. Impressed by the power of his unpolished opponent, Butler urged Rahman to hone his skills in the ring.

Rahman immediately embraced the sport, and adhered to the rules that the 82-year-old boxing trainer Mack Lewis still has posted at the entrance to his gym: “No Drugs. No Drinking. No Smoking. No Cursing.”

After only 10 amateur fights, Rahman turned pro. Now 28, the man known as The Rock completed his Rocky-like climb to the top last weekend, earning the IBF and WBC heavyweight belts by knocking out Lennox Lewis in the fifth round of their title bout in South Africa.

In the wake of his victory over one man named Lewis, Rahman thanked another.

“Mack Lewis gave me an outlet and probably saved my life,” Rahman said at his victory parade Wednesday in Baltimore. “We need more people like Mack Lewis.”

The parade route began at Lewis’ gym, where Rahman hugged his former trainer and posed in front of the long row of well-traveled white steps leading up to the second floor.

Lewis was replaced as Rahman’s trainer after the boxer began his climb in the heavyweight division. But that doesn’t diminish the thrill Lewis derives from seeing his former student shine in the ring--and in life.

“Anything I asked him to do, he did. He didn’t have any money and I wasn’t asking for any, because teaching him was a joy,” Lewis said. “He turned into a terrific person. We don’t have any children, but Hasim is the type of person you’d like to have as a son. I love him.”

Rahman (pronounced Rock-mon) was lucky to get the chance to step into the ring. He was shot in a street fight in the early 1990s, and in 1992 he was in a friend’s speeding pickup truck when the vehicle flipped, killing the driver. Rahman received 500 stitches and a long scar on his right cheek.

Once considered no more than a street thug, Rahman is now the father of three children, a devout Muslim and, yes, the heavyweight champion of the world.

“I was here the first day he came to the gym. I gave him his nickname and told him he was going to be the heavyweight champ,” said former boxer Rodger Womack. “Rock may have had problems in the past, but he never brought them into the gym. In here, he’s always been down to earth, focused and spiritual.”

Before his shocking knockout of Lewis, Rahman’s career was defined by his only two losses. In 1998, he lost to David Tua after being jarred by a punch after the bell. Rahman appeared on his way back until November 1999, when he was knocked out in the eighth round by unheralded Oleg Maskaev.

Now, four fights later, Rahman is the champ. Some wonder if he’s a modern-day Buster Douglas, who stunned Mike Tyson to win the heavyweight crown in 1990 and lost it for good just eight months later.

“This is not a fluke thing,” said Rahman’s manager, Stan Hoffman. “His punch is really devastating, and his heart is as big as his entire body. The kid trained for eight weeks just to get close enough to Lennox Lewis to knock him out. It was no accident.”

Since turning pro in 1994 after compiling a 7-3 record as an amateur, Rahman is 35-2 with 29 knockouts--impressive numbers considering his inexperience.