On April 22, 2001, Lennox Lewis (38-1-1, 29 KOs), the heavyweight WBC and IBF champion, defends his titles against American challenger, Hasim Rahman (34-2, 28 KOs).
Lennox Lewis is coming in to the fight on a 4-fight win streak with a 72% KO rate; his last fight was a unanimous decision win over David Tua, 5 months and 11 days ago. Hasim Rahman is on a 3-fight win streak with a 77% KO rate, with his last fight being a 7th round RTD win over Frankie Swindell, 8 months and 18 days ago.
The winning odds are at 91.7-8.3 in favor of Lennox Lewis. It is going to be very difficult for Hasim Rahman to win this fight.
Hasim Rahman stopped the champion via KO in the 5th round of the 12-round world-title fight, winning the first world titles of his career, and is crowned the new WBC and IBF heavyweight champion. Rahman improves his record to 35-2 (29 KOs), while Lewis adds a loss to his record at 38-2-1.