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Blast from the past: Rahman bliksems Lewis in Brakpan to win world title

Today in SA sports history: April 22

World heavyweight champion Lennox Lewis is counted out after being knocked out by little-known American challenger Hasim Rahman during their world title bout in Brakpan in 2001.
World heavyweight champion Lennox Lewis is counted out after being knocked out by little-known American challenger Hasim Rahman during their world title bout in Brakpan in 2001. (REUTERS/MIKE HUTCHINGS)

2000 — Shaun Bartlett scores early in the second half as Bafana Bafana beat Lesotho 1-0 in a largely scrappy Africa Cup of Nations qualifying match at the Free State Stadium in Bloemfontein.

2001 — American Hasim Rahman causes one of the great upsets of world boxing as he knocks out Lennox Lewis with a single right hand in the fifth round at Carnival City in Brakpan to lift the world heavyweight title. The bout was staged in the early hours of the morning to accommodate prime time US TV audiences.

2010 — Bafana Bafana are held to a 0-0 draw by North Korea in a World Cup warm-up match in Herzogenaurach, Germany. Some 700 German supporters taunted SA’s poor attempts at goal. The 2010 World Cup hosts were ranked 88th in the world while the Koreans were 105th.

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