By fighting Rahman, who is the highest available IBF opponent ranking #5, he satisfies his mandatory obligation through the IBF as a replacement to the #1 mandatory Alexander Povetkin who recently had to pull out of their fight due to a injury to his ankle during training.
Here's a video of the press conference.
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Klitschko vs rahman???coundnt they find a real contender?easy night for vlad,rahman will be on his backside before round 6.bye rock!
ReplyDeleteIt's all about the IBF belt. Povetkin was the mandatory and #1 and got injured. In order to count as a mandatory and not be stripped of the IBF belt he had to find the highest ranking available opponent and that happens to be Hasim Rahman. In general, there are other fights I'd like to see but, this isn't too bad of a match-up. Rahman has a name, ko'd Lewis, was a 2 time champion and certainly is a better choice for a title defense than a 46 year old Evander Holyfield that Valuev is facing. Once he beats Rahman he won't have any mandatory obligations for the WBO or IBF for quite some time, which will free him for a voluntary defense or 2....
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