Hasim Rahman continues to dominate the fight-before-the-fight with Lennox Lewis. During Wednesday's press conference, as Lennox walked away from the dais, declining to pose for a photo with Rahman, Hasim shouted after him, "Come back Lennox, I'm not going to hit you till Saturday!"

Rahman-Lewis II weigh-in

Hasim Rahman weighed 236 pounds officially Thursday, two pounds under what he weighed when he beat Lennox Lewis. The former champion weighed in at 246 1/2 pounds, 6 1/2 under his career-high weight for the first fight. "He comes in here and has no credentials whatsoever," Lewis said. "The only credential he has is beating me. I have 10 years of credentials." Rahman said: "I'm a fighter who's getting better every time out. I'm prepared to knock him out." -- The Associated Press

Lennox's walking away might be seen by some as an indication that he's a mentally beaten fighter. But his behavior at the press conference was consistent with the former champion's history. When engagement is not to his advantage, Lennox simply does not engage. He had been losing the war of words with Rahman, so he walked away, and thereby denied Rahman the opportunity to score any more points. Similarly, in Lewis' rematch with Evander Holyfield, where everyone thought Lennox would come out more aggressively than he did in their first fight, Lennox had clearly decided that this would not be to his advantage, and so he didn't come out more aggressively at all.

Emanuel Steward, Lewis' trainer, admitted at Wednesday's press conference that he doesn't know what to expect from Lennox from fight to fight. Among the two examples Steward cited were the Andrew Golota fight, where he warned Lennox that Golota was a bully and to be careful, and then Lennox obliterated Golota in the first round; and the Holyfield fights, where Steward wanted a more aggressive Lewis but what he saw was a more careful fighter. One wonders whether Lennox Lewis himself knows which Lennox will show up.

Rahman, for his part, has clearly been trying his best to ensure that he gets the aggressive Lennox Lewis on Saturday night. An aggressive Lewis would, after all, be more susceptible to Rahman's counterpunching, which has been Hasim's forte in the past. The new champ has been baiting Lennox relentlessly throughout their press tour, saying things like, "I hope he doesn't try any running and holding. This is a fight."

All of this analysis of pre-fight psychology leads us to the question: does any of this stuff really have an impact on the fight? The most obvious example in the last quarter of a century of a fighter baiting another fighter into abandoning a boxing strategy in favor of a more reckless, toe-to-toe strategy, is Roberto Duran's pre-fight verbal attacks on Sugar Ray Leonard before their first match. Duran enraged Leonard with comments towards Leonard's wife, and Leonard responded in the fight by foolishly engaging Duran in a toe-to-toe slugfest, rather than using his lateral movement and boxing skills. It was a strategy that proved disastrous for Sugar Ray, as Duran left the ring with the decision, Leonard's welterweight crown, and the title of best pound-for-pound fighter in the world. It remains to be seen whether Lennox is baitable. So far during his career, he has not been.

Much of the media coverage of this fight (and even this article) seems to be centered on Lennox Lewis. What of Hasim Rahman's chances to defend his title? There is an old adage in boxing that the title makes a fighter better, and Rahman might prove a further testament to this phenomenon. He would be following the example of fighters like James Toney. Toney was a fair-to-middlin prospect who rose dramatically in caliber as a fighter after he won the middleweight title, and even became a candidate for greatness. But a comparison between Rahman and Toney only goes so far, because Toney was never considered a disappointing underachiever before he won the belt, as Rahman may have been.

There are three fighters, all heavyweights, whose paths to the title more closely mirror Rahman's, and Hasim would do well to end the similarities there. Jack Sharkey, Max Baer, and Buster Douglas were all promising heavyweight prospects. All three underachieved as heavyweight contenders, meeting with mixed results when they challenged top opposition. All three eventually won the heavyweight crown. All three failed to successfully defend it even once.

Floyd's Fabulous
If Floyd Mayweather Jr.'s hands hold up, he's not going to lose for a long, long time. Last Saturday night he totally dominated legitimate, too-tough-for-his-own-good No. 1 contender Jesus Chavez. Chavez's trainer Ronnie Shields would not let his charge answer the bell for the 10th round, giving Mayweather the TKO victory. Shields' timing was perfect. His stoppage of the fight took the onus off the referee, who would have otherwise been left with two options, neither good: let the fight continue and risk Chavez's health, or stop the fight and face certain criticism from many in the press.

The fight looked like a poor man's St. Valentine's Day Massacre. That was the sixth and final installment of the Ray Robinson vs. Jake Lamotta series. Like Lamotta, Chavez showed all the heart in the world but was thoroughly beaten by a more talented fighter. After the fight, Mayweather announced that this would be his last fight at 130 pounds. They might as well hand him over the belts at 135.

Max Kellerman is a studio analyst for ESPN2's Friday Night Fights.