FanHouse HasimRahman

On July 4, America's independence Day, "Fast" Eddie Chambers was handing Ukrainian Alexander Dimitrenko his first loss in 30 bouts before a crowd partisan to Dimitrenko in Hamburg, Germany.

It was Chambers' fifth consecutive win since a January 2008 setback against Russian Alexander Povetkin. And the symbolism is not lost on Chambers, America's best shot at a heavyweight champion.

"I hear that a ton from my fans, like, 'You're the only one who is gonna do it.' It was important for me to go over there and show my skills," said Chambers, who defeated Dimitrenko the day before the latter's 27th birthday. "Beating Dimitrenko, you know, I realize what it did for the United States and our hopes of having a world champion again."

An aging fighter who is approaching 40 years old, Vitali Klitschko said this past week that when the time comes he will truly know when to retire from boxing.

"I'm in great shape, and I am in great form. If I feel that I don't have it left anymore, I will announce my retirement. But not yet," said Klitschko, adding that Saturday night's performance in defense of his heavyweight World Boxing Council championship against Cris Arreola would go a long way toward determining his decision.

In Thursday's episode of ESPN's MMA Live, Franklin McNeil calls a potential fight between Hasim Rahman and Kimbo Slice, "a tremendous fight," adding, "I think Kimbo could give him a tough fight, even in boxing." I've already made clear that I think Kimbo vs. Rahman is a bad idea, but since McNeil's comments indicate that it's an idea getting some momentum, let me go into a little more detail about why I don't like it.

In Thursday's episode of ESPN's MMA Live, Franklin McNeil calls a potential fight between Hasim Rahman and Kimbo Slice, "a tremendous fight," adding, "I think Kimbo could give him a tough fight, even in boxing." I've already made clear that I think Kimbo vs. Rahman is a bad idea, but since McNeil's comments indicate that it's an idea getting some momentum, let me go into a little more detail about why I don't like it.

Former boxing heavyweight champion Hasim Rahman says he's serious about taking up mixed martial arts, and that he'd love to fight Kimbo Slice. My opinion is that Rahman is not serious at all, and he just sees MMA as a way to cash an easy paycheck.

Bolstering my opinion that he's not really serious is this: Rahman's manager told Sherdog that he's in contact with Strikeforce about Rhaman fighting for the organization. But Strikeforce tells me that's not the case. I asked Strikeforce Vice President Mike Afromowitz via e-mail about Rahman, and he answered, "There has been no dialogue between Strikeforce and Hasim Rahman."

Former heavyweight boxing champion Hasim Rahman says he wants to give mixed martial arts a try, and he's already talking up Kimbo Slice as his first opponent.

Rahman told FightHype.com that if he fights Kimbo, "I see him getting knocked out quick. ... Kimbo would get knocked out trying to take me to the ground."

I'm sure Rahman is right that he'd knock Kimbo out, but that's because (as Seth Petruzelli showed), it's easy to knock Kimbo out. Any halfway decent heavyweight boxer should be able to knock Kimbo out quickly. That doesn't mean he'd be any good at MMA.

Former heavyweight boxing champion Hasim Rahman says he wants to give mixed martial arts a try, and he's already talking up Kimbo Slice as his first opponent.

Rahman told FightHype.com that if he fights Kimbo, "I see him getting knocked out quick. ... Kimbo would get knocked out trying to take me to the ground."

I'm sure Rahman is right that he'd knock Kimbo out, but that's because (as Seth Petruzelli showed), it's easy to knock Kimbo out. Any halfway decent heavyweight boxer should be able to knock Kimbo out quickly. That doesn't mean he'd be any good at MMA.

Wladimir Klitschko defended his WBO and IBF heavyweight titles in Germany today with a lopsided victory over the American Hasim Rahman, winning by TKO in the seventh round.

Klitschko dominated the early rounds, repeatedly landing hard jabs that Rahman just couldn't answer. In the third round Klitschko so thoroughly dominated that I scored it a 10-8 round even though Rahman never went down. Klitschko eventually wore Rahman down enough to knock him to the canvas in the sixth round -- a round in which Rahman didn't land a clean punch at all. Early in the seventh, Klitschko staggered Rahman, and the ref mercifully stopped it.

Klitschko and his brother Vitali are generally recognized as the two best heavyweights in the world, and although they'll never fight each other, I hope they'll start fighting better opposition than Rahman, who is well past his prime and appeared to be out of shape. Mismatches like this one don't do much to advance heavyweight boxing.

Klitschko improved his record to 52-3 and is now on a 10-fight winning streak. Rahman fell to 45-7-2 and is now 10-5-2 with one no contest since knocking out Lennox Lewis in 2001.

Welcome to the FanHouse live blog of this afternoon's heavyweight title fight between Wladimir Klitschko and Hasim Rahman, where we'll provide round-by-round updates of all of the action from the fight in Germany.

The fight begins around 5 p.m. Eastern and the live blog begins after the jump.