Heavyweight Title

When heavyweight Oleg Maskaev met trainer Victor Valle Jr. nearly 3 1/2 years ago at Gleason's Gym in Brooklyn, N.Y., Maskaev was shadow-boxing and - it appeared - a shadow of the fighter he once was. "I was alone, just going through the motions," Maskaev said, recalling an 18-month period when, at the age of 33, he had gone 2-3 and was knocked out three times. WBC heavyweight title fight Hasim Rahman (41-5-2, 33 KOs) vs. Oleg Maskaev (32-5, 25 KOs), Saturday, approx. 11 p.m., Las Vegas

Arthur Jones III could easily take his answer in a somber direction. The Ravens defensive end has just been asked to imagine how his mother, blind from diabetes the last three years, will experience Sunday's game against the New England Patriots. Instead of talking about what Camille Jones has lost, however, he describes how mightily she'll cheer as his fiancee narrates the plays for her. "I swear I can hear her voice," he says. "She kind of has her own personal vision in her brain of how everything is going down.

Heavyweight champion of the world.Those words have a certain resonance that eludes even the most sought-after sports crowns. Olympic gold medalist. Super Bowl champ. World Series winner. They just don't strike the same chord as heavyweight champion of the world."The heavyweight champion is considered the strongest man in the world," said Bert Sugar, a boxing historian. "He always has, going back 100 years to John L. Sullivan. He's alone, not one of a team. And he stands almost naked in the ring, in the spotlight.

It has been said that many of America's future heavyweight boxing champions are hidden on various football fields and basketball courts across the country. Gone are the days of supreme athletes choosing a career between the ropes over one in the NFL  or NBA.  But now, seven knee surgeries later, a former linebacker has gone from the football field and into the ring in an attempt to bring the heavyweight title back to the United States.  ...

WASHINGTON -- Two years ago, Buster Douglas lay in a Columbus, Ohio, hospital, a 385-pound blob in a diabetes-induced coma.Now, trimmed down to 265 and with new resolve, Douglas has dedicated himself to avenging the loss of his undisputed heavyweight title to Evander Holyfield in October 1990.He will end his self-imposed, six-year exile from the ring June 22, at the Taj Mahal in Atlantic City, N.J., against journeyman Tony La Rosa on the undercard of the Hector Camacho-Roberto Duran middleweight title match.

Standing on a podium and speaking into a microphone at the Mandalay Bay Hotel & Casino in Las Vegas, Baltimore boxer Hasim Rahman filled the room with his bravado. "I'm not looking for a decision. I'm looking to knock Lennox Lewis out again," Baltimore's first world heavyweight champion said on Nov. 15. But two days later, it was Rahman who went down. A right hand from Lewis swiveled Rahman's head, sending him to a fourth-round knockout loss and enabling Lewis to reclaim the heavyweight title he'd lost to Rahman in April 2001.

LAS VEGAS -- Weighing in at a ripped 235 pounds Thursday, Hasim Rahman was told he looked like a bodybuilder heading into tonight's heavyweight title bout against Oleg Maskaev. "No, what I look like is what a heavyweight champ should look like," said Rahman, the Baltimore native who holds the World Boxing Council crown. "A bodybuilder is going to wish he could do what I'm going to do on Saturday night." Rahman needs a solid performance to maintain his hopes of a showdown with International Boxing Federation champ Wladimir Klitschko, if not to silence critics of what has been an up-and-down career.

Will you be watching Hasim Rahman defend his heavyweight title? I'll be watching and rooting for Rahman because: he's a Baltimore guy, he hasn't been involved in doping and he's not afraid to talk to people about his loss to Maskaev. Baltimore sports fans need Rahman, and he needs us. David Boyd White Hall NEXT QUESTION Would Maurice Clarett have stayed out of trouble if he had finished out his career at Ohio State? Selected responses to today's question will be printed tomorrow on The Kickoff page.

LAS VEGAS -- Evander Holyfield is looking to draw as big a crowd to share his faith as he can to watch him fight.Two days before he fights Michael Moorer to unify portions of the heavyweight title, Holyfield will act as host for an event he thinks is bigger than his fight.The WBA heavyweight champion is organizing a Christian rally for Nov. 6 that organizers predict will draw 15,000 people for a night of preaching and music.If it does, it will rival the crowd expected for the fight two nights later at the UNLV campus arena that will unify the WBA and IBF versions of the heavyweight title.

Baltimore native Hasim Rahman will begin his comeback attempt on March 11 at Michael's Eighth Avenue in Glen Burnie, where he will fight former cruiserweight world champion Al Cole, Rahman said yesterday. "Basically we have a restructuring program mapped out to get me back to a title shot, and we're coming home to where it all started," Rahman, 31, said from the Las Vegas home he purchased in August. "It's a match at home against a durable former world champion that's part of a keep-busy plan.

Major League Lacrosse Bayhawks fall victim to late comeback, lose at Charlotte, 13-12 The expansion Charlotte Hounds handed the visiting Chesapeake Bayhawks their first loss since May 12 on Saturday night, coming from behind to win, 13-12. Leading by three with just under six minutes to play, the Bayhawks (7-2), who remain in first place despite the setback, fell apart on the defensive end. The Hounds pulled to within 12-11 on back-to-back unassisted goals from Matt Danowski . Jeff Reynolds (Calvert Hall, Maryland)

Jake Hager was all set to enter the real world after graduating from the University of Oklahoma four years ago with a degree in business finance. As he was about to begin working full time at a finance firm in Dallas, however, a piece of mail came to his home that drastically altered his plans. It was a contract offer to wrestle for World Wrestling Entertainment. Goodbye, real world; hello, surreal world. "I had to call [the finance firm] and tell them that I was going to wear spandex and baby oil for a living," he said.

LAS VEGAS -- Weighing in at a ripped 235 pounds Thursday, Hasim Rahman was told he looked like a bodybuilder heading into tonight's heavyweight title bout against Oleg Maskaev. "No, what I look like is what a heavyweight champ should look like," said Rahman, the Baltimore native who holds the World Boxing Council crown. "A bodybuilder is going to wish he could do what I'm going to do on Saturday night." Rahman needs a solid performance to maintain his hopes of a showdown with International Boxing Federation champ Wladimir Klitschko, if not to silence critics of what has been an up-and-down career.

When heavyweight Oleg Maskaev met trainer Victor Valle Jr. nearly 3 1/2 years ago at Gleason's Gym in Brooklyn, N.Y., Maskaev was shadow-boxing and - it appeared - a shadow of the fighter he once was. "I was alone, just going through the motions," Maskaev said, recalling an 18-month period when, at the age of 33, he had gone 2-3 and was knocked out three times. WBC heavyweight title fight Hasim Rahman (41-5-2, 33 KOs) vs. Oleg Maskaev (32-5, 25 KOs), Saturday, approx. 11 p.m., Las Vegas

Will you be watching Hasim Rahman defend his heavyweight title? I'll be watching and rooting for Rahman because: he's a Baltimore guy, he hasn't been involved in doping and he's not afraid to talk to people about his loss to Maskaev. Baltimore sports fans need Rahman, and he needs us. David Boyd White Hall NEXT QUESTION Would Maurice Clarett have stayed out of trouble if he had finished out his career at Ohio State? Selected responses to today's question will be printed tomorrow on The Kickoff page.

Record books show that former heavyweight champion Floyd Patterson, who died Thursday in New York, was the first man to win the title twice. Actually, Patterson should have won it three times -- and would have won it three times, if it weren't for a referee in desperate need of cataract surgery. The first came on Nov. 30, 1956, exactly 30 days before my 5th birthday. As a child born in the early 1950s, I remember Patterson most vividly as the first heavyweight champion whose name was mentioned by my elders.

A chronology of the demise in credibility among the world boxing organizations and the rise of the role of television and cable networks. Early 1930s: The middleweight division splinters into two factions, with champs like Baltimore's Vince Dundee and Teddy Yaroz carrying the titles of the New York State Athletic Commission - then the most powerful and recognized sanctioning body - and Al Hostak, Solly Krieger and Tony Zale being crowned by the National...

He was not an actor, but he generated more drama than a troupe of Broadway stars.He was not a magician, but his hands were so fast that slow-motion cameras sometimes failed to pick up his punches.He was not a politician, but he could be more elo-quent and impassioned than those who were.And although it seems impossible, Muhammad Ali, the man who captivated both the sports world and the "real" world with his skill, wit and grace, turns 50 today.Fifty.Some fans may remember him as the athlete of towering skills who made some of his bouts look as easy as shadow-boxing sessions.

So, tonight we will say farewell to the World Baseball Classic until 2009, when - we can only hope - some of the wrinkles will be ironed out and the Orioles will not have to supply all the players. The inaugural baseball "World Cup," regardless of the outcome of tonight's showdown between Cuba and Japan, should be viewed as a qualified success. Major League Baseball succeeded in creating an exciting event that extended the international reach of the sport while introducing American fans to an outside world of baseball talent they barely knew existed.

ATLANTIC CITY, N.J. -- Boxing's fractured heavyweight division has four champions. They are the World Boxing Council's Hasim Rahman, the International Boxing Federation's Chris Byrd, the World Boxing Association's Nikolay Valuev and the World Boxing Organization's Lamon Brewster. Of these, Rahman's belt is considered the most accepted - although not necessarily because he is considered to be the best of the lot. The WBC belt held by Rahman has a lineage that can be traced back through such champions as Lennox Lewis, Larry Holmes, Joe Frazier, Muhammad Ali, Rocky Marciano, Joe Louis -- all the way back to John L. Sullivan in the late 19th century.