BALTIMORE – Returning home was more of a challenge for Hasim "The Rock" Rahman than knocking out Lennox Lewis.

While family, friends and fans waited with balloons, signs and T-shirts at Baltimore-Washington International Airport, the new heavyweight champion was working his way south in a rental car after missing a connecting flight Monday morning in New York from South Africa.

Rahman eventually made it downtown by early afternoon to be greeted by a crowd of more than 50 people.

On his three-hour drive, Rahman passed his Bel Air home.

"The bed was calling me, but my people was here," he said with a wide smile.

At the store, he showed the crowd his cut left eye, a cut he said was caused by a Lewis head-butt shortly before the fifth-round knockout.

"I wanted to come and show the war wound. We went to war, we came out victorious – and I felt like you all were there with me," Rahman said. "He head-butted me and my eye started bleeding and he felt like he was going to take advantage, so he had to be dealt with."

As he signed autographs, Rahman said he wondered at first if Lewis would recover from the knockout punch.

"I looked back and there was no way he could get back up, and I just started celebrating," Rahman said.

Mayor Martin O'Malley was among those who waited in vain for Rahman at the airport.

"I'm really proud of him and I know the city is, too," he said.

O'Malley's office announced later Monday that the mayor would honor Rahman with a motorcade and noon pep rally Wednesday at City Hall.

One of those to see Rahman on Monday, James Brownson, said he pulled his 15-year-old son out of school to meet the new champ.

"It's a once-in-a-lifetime thing," said Brownson, a Baltimore native who lives in Pennsylvania. "This guy made the history books all in one night."

Brownson said the boxer he admires most is Muhammad Ali, but "it comes sweeter when it's a hometown guy."

"At least we got two champions in Baltimore," James Brownson Jr. added, still glowing from the Baltimore Ravens' Super Bowl win.

And after the elder Brownson got Rahman's autograph, he couldn't believe his eyes.

"I am just going to sit here and savor the moment," he said.

Bernard Settle, Rahman's cousin, said he was confident before the fight.

"This was just like destiny," Settle said. "He had the skills and I knew he had the heart and the determination."