"There's a big itch in the heavyweight division that's waiting to be scratched and I'm more than willing to step up and scratch it. There's a lot of good fighters out there, but I feel like I'm the best amongst them all...I'm about 240 pounds. I'm looking to make my debut anywhere from around 225 to 230. I've been around this sport all my life," stated Hasim Rahman Jr., son of former heavyweight champion Hasim Rahman, who revealed that he recently signed with Greg Cohen Promotions and will be turning pro in early 2017. Check it out!
BP: Rock, I hear you're looking to make some noise in the heavyweight division as soon as possible. Tell us about it!
HRJR: I feel like the heavyweight division is pretty much where boxing is at a whole; there's a big itch in the heavyweight division that's waiting to be scratched and I'm more than willing to step up and scratch it. There's a lot of good fighters out there, but I feel like I'm the best amongst them all. Alexander Povetkin, Anthony Joshua, Deontay Wilder, Luis Ortiz; all these guys are good fighters, but there's not somebody who's just emerging like a Roy Jones or Lennox Lewis or Mike Tyson. I feel like that's my place to come up and put the rest of the heavyweight division in their place. To be a dominant heavyweight, I have everything it takes to do that.
BP: That's a bold statement. People that are reading this interview are going to wonder who are you to make a statement like that, especially since you haven't even turned pro yet. Explain to people why you think you already have the credentials to make such a statement! Actually, first of all, what are you weighing right now?
HRJR: As of today, I'm about 240 pounds. I'm looking to make my debut anywhere from around 225 to 230. I've been around this sport all my life. I got a late start; I started when I was 14, but I've been around the sport all my life. I've been in there with multiple world champions, mulitple guys that have been at the top of the upper echelon of the sport and I know that I've never been dropped, I've never been seriously hurt, whether it be sparring or a fight. With the experience that I have; throughout the amateurs, I almost had 100 fights. With my team and the experience behind me, and especially the fact that I have my father on my team now, I feel like the only thing that can stop me is me and I've taken time off to get out of my own way. That was the major key that I was missing. I've gotten out of my own way. I'm completely focused and driven. It's something that's going to special to watch, Hasim Rahman back in the heavyweight division. This time it's just a jr. behind his name and I'm coming full speed.
BP: I know nothing is set in stone yet, but do you have an idea on when exactly you do plan on turning pro? Are we talking end of this year or early next year?
HRJR: Early 2017. I'll be with Greg Cohen Promotions. That's my promoter. That's who I'm going to be fighting under; I'm going to be fighting under the GCP banner. We're going to bring the world title to Greg Cohen Promotions. What I look to do is unify the heavyweight titles. I don't know the last time they've been unified. If my memory serves me correct, I think the last time we had an undisputed heavyweight champion, I believe it was Lennox. He was undisputed, and before him, it was Hasim Rahman, so for me to put my name in the books, I have everything it takes. Put it like this, if these guys that I'm watching on TV, these guys that I'm sitting here watching and I've boxed with, if they can go grab a heavyweight title, there's no way that I shouldn't be able to unify the heavyweight division. There's absolutely no way. I've been in there with the best. I've been in there with the biggest. I've been in there with the baddest. All these guys that are making all this noise right now, come 2017, I'm gonna give them something to look out for. Within my first few years, they're going to be running from me. They can run, but they can't hide. The way that I'm going to be looking, it's going to be so devastating that they're not going to have a choice but to fight. That's the type of buzz that I'm about to create in this boxing world. It's not just about the heavyweight division to me; it's about the entire sport. The sport has been given to the smaller weight classes; it's been given to the little guys. Floyd Mayweather took over the sport and took it to the next level. If we can have somebody be that dominant and knocking people out and be fan-friendly and can speak and handle himself, we can bring this sport back. I love to see these heavyweights having success because they're just setting the stage for me. That's all they doing. A lot of people who know me know my dream was to fight in the Olympics. That was unfortunately taken away from me; I couldn't do it because I had things in my life that needed to be taken care of. Now that everything is out the way, it's clearing the stage for me for 2017. I'm going to come and I'm going to shake the boxing world up.
BP: It sounds like you're obviously looking to make up for lost time. That being said, are you planning on moving quickly when you turn pro? I mean, do you already have an idea of how many fights you want to get under your belt before you get to that title contention level?
HRJR: Absolutely! I believe that I have the skills and the mindset to go in there with anybody, and my promoter has given me the green light. If I can fight 20 times in 2017, I'm gonna fight 20 times. If I can fight 12 times, I'ma fight 12 times. I'm not turning nothing done. I never have. That's just my mindset. As many times as I can fight, that's how I'm gonna fight and I'm gonna carry that mindset throughout my career. I'm not in this sport to take punishment; that's not what my mentor taught me. My mentor was obviously Floyd Mayweather for a long time and he didn't teach us to get in this sport take punishment. He taught us when you get in this sport, make the most money that you can and take the least amount of punishment that you can, so that's the blueprint and that's what I'ma do. I'm not going to say that I'm gonna come out and in my first 20 fights, I'm going to fight for a world title. I've been around the sport so long, I know that's how guys mess up. They get forced into doing things. When I feel like I'm ready, I'll go ahead and challenge for the title. As of this moment, we feel like it's going to take less than 2 years for me to be at the top of the heavyweight division. Right now, it's looking relatively fast, but if I'm not ready, I'm not going to force it. But I can't see any reason why I won't be in there with one of the titleist before the end of 2019.
BP: You mentioned Floyd Mayweather being one of your mentors. I don't know if you can touch on this or not, but I know you had some legal issues going on with Floyd regarding some sparring that took take place at his gym. Is everything cool between you guys now or is that situation still being resolved?
HRJR: That's all behind us now. At the end of the day, a lot of people are going to ask, "Well why didn't you sign with Floyd?" This is the thing, Floyd is family. I met Floyd when I was 7 and since then, he's been like an uncle to me and he's been like an uncle to my younger brother. Whatever differences we had before, that's all behind us. Like I said before, that's family and at the end of the day, family and business don't mix. Business-wise, we're going to go ahead and go our separate routes, but as far as family-wise, I know in his heart, Floyd is rooting for me, just like I've always rooted for him. He don't want to see me get hurt just like I never wanted to see him get hurt. So everything is good with me and the Mayweather camp. Everything is good on our end and, as far as I know, everything is good on their end. I wish Floyd would come back and get that 50. I want him to go ahead and get that 50 so he can shut the boxing world up debating about who's the best ever. They know who it is; I just want Champ to go ahead and solidify that.
BP: Do you see guys out there now that were amateurs around the same time as you who are now having success in the pro ranks?
HRJR: Yeah, I see guys, but I don't think that they're having the success that they're potential is affording them. Basically, I have a great team and the base of my team is the relationship with me and my father. That's my secret weapon because he's been to the top of the sport, he's been undisputed heavyweight champion of the world, he knows exactly what it takes to get there, and everything that he seen in himself, he sees in me and more, so there's no reason for me not to take this to the next level with him in my ear the whole time. That's what separates me from everybody else. I've always had the physical advantage, but me and my father, we weren't always on the same page. Now, for the past 2 1/2 years, we've been on the same page. We've been getting together and working on my plan and working myself and we're ready to go ahead and take over. What I want the boxing world to know is that Team Rahman is back and Baltimore is coming strong. We got my little cousin, Lorenzo Simpson, he's doing his thing in the amateurs. He just passed De La Hoya for the record for most amateur titles. He's putting the city on the map. We got Gervonta Davis putting the city on the map. We're coming real strong. My little brother Sharif too; he's had some injury problems, but he's about to go ahead and get his career back jumpstarted. We're going to take the city, we're going to take the sport, and we're just taking over. Just like my father did. It's nothing to it but to do it and we're about to do it real big.
BP: So what are your thoughts on today's talent in the heavyweight division and what make you believe that people are going to buy into what you're telling them?
HRJR: I feel like most of the fighters that I see are one-dimensional. They just fight one way. The most dangerous one that I see and I really can't wait to fight is Alexander Povetkin; not only because him and my father fought, but just because he's the one that I see that has the most skill. To me, I believe that skills pay the bills and hard work and dedication is the key to having your skills be at the top level and ready to perform at all times. I don't think that any of these fighters can see me skill for skill. I know that they don't have a bigger heart than me, so it's going to come down to who's ready. My conditioning is going to be at the top and ready to go at all times in every fight just like the greats of my era: Andre Ward, Floyd Mayweather, Guillermo Rigondeaux. These guys are always ready to go and this is the blueprint for young fighters today, like myself, Errol Spence, Luis Arias, Marcus Brown, Michael Reed. We're all taking the blueprint from these dudes from our era. There is nobody that's really taking the heavyweight division and saying, "This is mine!" I feel like that's because that's my throne. If ain't nobody else gonna do it, then I'm gonna go ahead and make it clear that no heavyweight belongs in the ring with me. Absolutely it's the heavyweight division and anything can change with one punch, but I'm here to show you that when you come prepared, focused, and as long as I have my faith right and my dad behind me, I'm good, I'm 100%, and it's going to give the heavyweight division something to look forward to.
Obviously, you know, people are going to have to wait and see. Anybody who's ever seen me fight, they know that I've never been in a boring fight. Win or lose, I've never been in a boring fight; it's always been exciting from bell 1 to the end of the fight because I have the x factor. I can punch. Everybody that I've ever fought have told me after the fight that I can punch. I know I can punch. My downfall in the past has been my conditioning and I've got over that hump through maturity. The last time I fought, I was 22 years old. I'm 25 now. I have a lot more maturity and I take the sport of boxing not as a game; this is a lifestyle. This is something that you do for 10 or 15 years and you give it your all. You don't rest in the middle. You rest at the end. You do what Floyd did. Floyd, he gets better and better each fight. He doesn't take time off. When Roy Jones was in his prime, you don't see these guys go through slumps. They are just dominant. I know 100% that I have what it takes to be dominant. It really doesn't matter if people don't buy into what I'm selling in the beginning. What my mentors have taught me is that what matters is that they buy into the pay-per-views, so once I get to knocking these guys out, they gonna want to see and they gonna have to pay for it.
BP: So what brought about that change in you? What got you "over that hump", as you put it, and is making you take this sport more seriously now? Is simply the fact that you got older?
HRJR: It's going through something; it's adversity. When you go through things and you feel like the whole world turned their back on you and you have nothing to rely on but yourself, you really find out who is there for you and you really sit back and find out what you're made of. You don't know what you're made of until you absolutely have to prove it. You don't know how strong you are until you have no choice but to be strong, and I have no choice but to be strong at this point. This is me. This is my career. This is my legacy. This is what I'm going to leave behind and I stand behind everything that I say. I'm absolutely going to take this division by storm and I'm absolutely going to give people what they've been waiting for from me since I was like 14. A lot of people know I started off with Emanuel Steward, and still to this day, I still cherish the things that he taught me. Pretty much every top trainer in the country, I've trained with and they've all seen it in me. It's just a matter of digging down and going to get it. I have that drive to go and get it and I have the right team behind me now, I so I can't wait to put it to use.
BP: Well Rock, I know you still have to finalize all the details, but let the fans know what they can expect when you finally do make your pro debut!
HRJR: They can expect a rock solid heavyweight with a rock solid performance. Early 2017, me, my father, and the entire Baltimore city is going to go ahead and take this heavyweight division by storm because I know I got my city behind me, I know I got my dad and my family behind me. My promoter has extreme belief in me; he's always believed in me since I've been a young teen and that's what you need. I have all the keys that it takes to go ahead and get to major success in this game and I'ma go ahead and put the pedal to the metal and make a huge splash in this heavyweight division. We gonna keep the bangers coming to FightHype.com. First off, I want to thank God for enlightening me and showing me everything that I need to do and showing me everything that He has planned out for me. I also want to thank Greg Cohen for giving me the opportunity to pursue my dreams. I want to thank my father and the rest of my family for believing in me and supporting me 100%.