When Lennox Lewis first fought Hasim Rahman in April 2001, he was a 20-to-1 favorite to retain his WBC and IBF heavyweight titles and indeed filmed some scenes for the film Ocean’s Eleven in the lead-up to the contest. Rahman shocked the world with a vicious right hand shot that put Lewis down and out for a fifth-round KO.
An immediate rematch occurred later that November, with Rahman now signed to Don King Promotions. There was some legal mumbo jumbo going on when King tried to have Rahman defend his title against David Izon instead, but Lewis successfully stopped that attempt and the rematch was on for November 17, 2001 in Vegas.