Big Bear, CA (BoxingGurus) - Like a man retracing the steps that he once used to climb in a dream up to heaven, WBC & IBF Heavyweight champion Hasim Rahman arrived yesterday in the high-altitude hamlet of Big Bear to begin training for his rematch next month with ex-champion Lennox Lewis at the Mandalay Bay Events Center in Las Vegas on November 17th.
With 30 days to go before the fight, Rahman talked with reporters about the role of high-altitude conditioning and the key part it played in his upset victory over Lewis last April in Johannesburg, South Africa.
"Conditioning plays the most important part in how well you can take punches," Rahman said. "I was able to handle everything Lewis threw at me and keep coming back with my own shots. He threw some pretty good combinations in there, too, including a good double-hook at the end of the third round, but I was able to keep moving and take some heat off his punches. That's because I trained up there in Johannesburg for a month before the fight and got myself in the best condition I could."
As for whether he expects to be taking the heat off a similar number of Lewis's punches this time around, Rahman offered some good insight.
"I anticipate Lewis will come right at me, because I feel like he pretty much has to now."
Asked to explain, Rahman went on, "He's been telling everybody that he's gonna knock me out. That I'm only holding the belt for him. That he's gonna 'get me' this time and what not. So I feel like he's talked himself into no choice now but to have to come right at me."
This time, though, Rahman believes he poses more than just a strategic dilemma for Lewis. He's confident he's gotten inside the ex-champion's head.
"I think I've got a permanent place there, because it seems like every time he comes up against me, I win. I mean look, I won the war we had in South Africa, and I feel like I've won every war of words we had since then, so."
Rahman thinks he has that huge edge which will pay off for him again. He thinks Lewis can't figure out a way to stop losing and Rahman knows it bugs Lewis a lot.
The question comes up, however, in light of their recent bare-knuckled brawl on the set of a TV sports-talk show, just how deep under Rahman's skin has Lewis managed to crawl?
"There's anger there," Rahman admits. "But I don't walk around angry. I got it under control. Let's just say I'm glad to know I'll be taking up the matter of my anger with the man who caused it, very soon now."
