Wladimir Klitschko easily set aside the challenge of substitute Hasim Rahman , stopping the former heavyweight champion in seven rounds on Saturday in Mannheim , Germany .
Saturday
wladimir klitschko easily set aside challenge substitute hasim rahman stop heavyweight champion seven round saturday mannheim germany
Wladimir Klitschko easily set aside the challenge of substitute Hasim Rahman , stopping the former heavyweight champion in seven rounds on <m> Saturday </m> in Mannheim , Germany .
Wladimir Klitschko easily set aside the challenge of substitute Hasim Rahman , stopping the former heavyweight champion in seven rounds on <m> Saturday </m> in Mannheim , Germany .
Klitschko ( 52-3 , 46 knockouts ) retained his International Boxing Federation title for the fifth time in the process .
The six-foot-five Ukrainian-born champ was never threatened in the bout , controlling the distance with his jab and introducing some heavy right hands beginning late in the second round .
Rahman , 36 , soon grew more intent on survival than winning and fell from three consecutive left hooks in the sixth .
Referee Tony Weeks elected to stop the bout early in the seventh when the American was offering no reply to Klitschko 's thudding blows .
Rahman ( 45-7-2 , 36 KOs ) fell into the title shot five weeks ago when unbeaten Russian Alexander Povetkin suffered an ankle injury in training and could n't face Klitschko .
The Baltimore , Md. , native held portions of heavyweight title on two previous occasions , but has n't beaten an elite opponent in several years .
He was undisputed champ for six months in 2001 after stunning Lennox Lewis by knockout in South Africa .
Lewis avenged the defeat later in that year with a one-punch knockout of his own .
Rahman would go on to win the vacant World Boxing Council in 2005 over Monte Barrett but lost it just over a year later to Oleg Maskaev .
The win over Rahman was the 32-year-old Klitschko 's third of the year , following up a decision over Sultan Ibragimov and an 11th-round stoppage of Tony Thompson .
His older brother , Vitali , now holds the WBC title .