By Frank Lotierzo

Former heavyweight champ and current WBC Interim title holder Hasim Rahman recently predicted that WBC champ Vitali Klitschko won't make it past the ninth round of their title bout next week. Rahman said Klitschko will take an unprecedented beating before being forced to quit. That's a good thought, but Rahman hasn't been impressive in the four years that have passed since hitting the lottery versus an out of shape Lennox Lewis in April of 2001.

In reality, the only reason Rahman is even thought to have a punchers chance against Klitschko, is his fifth round knockout of Lewis to win the title. Which in a roundabout way I guess suggest that if he's capable of beating Lewis, he's capable of beating Klitschko, the fighter that is supposed to be the heir apparent to Lewis. The problem with assuming that if he can beat Lewis, he has a legitimate shot to upset Klitschko, discounts two important things that figure into this fight that weren't in play when Rahman beat Lewis.

At first glance it's easy to make physical comparisons between Lewis and Klitschko due to their height and reach. Something both knew how to use to their advantage. However, Lewis was the more complete and dangerous fighter. It's easy to see when watching them fight that Lewis could do everything as a fighter better than Vitali Klitschko. Lewis brought a much better and more formidable offensive attack into the ring with him than Klitschko does. On top of that, he was a better boxer and also a better puncher with either hand. That said, Klitschko will be harder to beat for Rahman than Lewis was in their first fight.

That's not because Rahman is four years older now than he was when he fought Lewis. Obviously it wasn't age that devastated Rahman in the rematch. The thing that brought Rahman's seven month title reign to an end was a big right hand delievered from an in shape and focused Lewis. Remember, Lewis was never in worse shape for a title fight, until fighting Klitschko two years later, than he was for his first fight with Rahman.

The mind set of Lewis going into the first fight with Rahman was on automatic pilot. In his last fight he won about 34 minutes of a 36 minute fight with the dynamite punching David Tua. Lewis was caught up in his small part in the movie Ocean's Eleven, not to mention looking down the road with a fight with  Mike Tyson in the works. With boxing being just as much mental as it is physical, Rahman couldn't have fought Lewis at a more perfect time. Lewis was just going through the motions and couldn't get up for Rahman like he needed to. After being stopped and embarrassed by him, Lewis had all he needed to get up for their rematch.

This time a determined Lewis destroyed Rahman, knocking out with a massive right hand in the fourth round. When Rahman fights Klitschko next week, he'll be facing a fighter who will come into the ring with the mind set closer to the one Lewis had for the rematch with Rahman. I believe Vitali Klitschko has all the motivation he'll need for this fight for more than a few reasons.

I have a suspicion Klitschko will be better prepared for it than most observers think. This is a fight that he has plenty of different things to draw from. The fact Klitschko is in the process of still trying to establish a legacy of his own, grantees he hasn't looked past Rahman. Add to that he's only made one defense of his WBC title and hasn't fought in eleven months since, just adds fuels to his fire.

Something else I suspect that's in the back of Klitschko's mind is the way Rahman's been saying he was afraid of him and that's the reason why they didn't fight back in April when the fight was originally scheduled. If that weren't enough, Rahman has been quoted recently saying, "I'm going to tear down the house of Klitschko, brotherly," later saying, ";I am going to personally overthrow them."

Maybe Rahman really believes Klitschko fears him, something I wouldn't count on if I were him. I don't think Rahman's fist can cash the check his mouth as written. It seems Rahman may have bought into some of the anti-Klitschko sentiment. The one that thinks the Klitschko's can't fight and can be defeated by any fighter who has a heart beat. If Rahman thinks once he punches Klitschko in the face a few time, he'll look for a way out. That will no doubt be the beginning of the end of his hopes of winning the title again.

Look, I'm not saying Vitali Klitschko is unbeatable and  one day be thought of on the same level as Lennox Lewis. I'm just saying because of his size and him knowing how to make it work to his advantage, he's a tough fight physically and strategically for any fighter. He presents all type of match up problems for Rahman. His physical stature would have Rahman in a catch-22 regardless of the he adopts. If he's forced back, he'll have no shot a winning a decision, and if he goes to Klitschko and tries to force the fight, he'll get nailed hard on the way in, setting himself up to be stopped.

I'm having a hard time making a case for Rahman to win this fight. Since his upset of Lennox Lewis, Rahman has fought 10 times. Four of those fights were against a former title holder or number one ranked contender (Lewis, Holyfield, Tua, Ruiz). Rahman is winless in those bouts going 0-3-1. The last fight Evander Holyfield won and even resembled a legitimate contender was against Rahman, almost three and a half years ago. The last time Rahman challenged for one of the four heavyweight title belts was against John Ruiz. Ruiz had his way with Rahman for the better part of 12-rounds, winning a unanimous decision to regain the vacant WBA title 23 months ago. Rahman is unbeaten in his six bouts after fighting Ruiz and is getting his third title shot.

In his last bout, Rahman scored his biggest win since he defeated Lennox Lewis over fringe contender Monte Barrett. Although the decision was unanimous, he was far from dominant or impressive. Based on what he's done since he shocked Lewis, I don't give him much of a chance to beat Vitali Klitschko, which means I expect him to fall on his prediction.