Rahman Gets Past Barrett on Decision

World Boxing Council interim heavyweight champion Hasim Rahman unanimously outpointed Monte Barrett on Saturday night to keep his place at the front of the line to face Vitali Klitschko.

But the fighters did not endear themselves to the United Center crowd, which booed throughout the slow-paced bout.

Rahman (41-5, 33 knockouts) had said he wanted an early knockout but was unable to catch Barrett (31-4, 17).

“I got dinged a little,” Rahman said. “Monte is a good puncher. I don’t think Klitschko will move around that much, but I showed tonight that I’m ready for 12 rounds.”

Rahman opened a cut on Barrett’s left eyelid with a hard right in the fifth. And he landed another hard right to the head at the end of the eighth round.

But there were more boos than big hits, more clenches than connecting punches.

“He hit me with some good shots, but he never hurt me,” said Barrett, the WBC’s No. 2 contender.

Rahman was bleeding from a cut above his left eye in the 12th round.

“I only give myself a ‘B’ for performance, but I think I did enough to win,” Barrett said.

Rahman remained the No. 1 contender.

On the undercard, Ricardo Mayorga won the vacant WBC super welterweight championship with a unanimous decision over former International Boxing Federation welterweight champion Michele Piccirillo.

Mayorga (27-5-1, 22) had knockdowns in the second and fourth rounds but was unable to finish off Piccirillo (44-3, 28).

Former World Boxing Council heavyweight champion Oliver McCall (45-8, 32) stopped Przemyslaw Saleta (42-7, 21) at 2:40 of the fourth round.