Povetkin vs Huck: Winner Must Face Hasim Rahman

Hasim Rahman will get an entirely undeserved shot at the WBA "regular" (paper) heavyweight title, sometime in the frame of 120 days after the February 25 bout between trinketholder Alexander Povetkin and Marco Huck.

Rahman, 39, was already the mandatory challenger and he and promoter Greg Cohen raised a bit of a stink about the Povetkin vs Huck fight recently, so the WBA met with Cohen and a rep from Sauerland Event and worked out a deal.

This is bogus on top of bogus, as Rahman (50-7-2, 41 KO) hasn't been a legitimate top heavyweight in seven years, and in his last fight came in at a grotesque 284 pounds on the scales (or about 50 pounds over his peak weight) to defeat Galen Brown last June, and just looked physically shot to all hell in the sixth round TKO win.

I guess a string of wins over the likes of Brown, Marcus McGee, Damon Reed, Shannon Miller and Clinton Boldridge is good enough to "earn a world title shot" these days.

The last time Rahman was on the major stage, he was a replacement opponent against Wladimir Klitschko in December 2008, when Povetkin ducked Klitschko for the first time. Rahman was throttled and mercifully stopped in seven, not even remotely competitive in the fight.