Boxing: Big time Kali

He was probably the worst heavyweight boxer I had seen. He couldn't knock a boy scout off your sister." Former New Zealand heavyweight champion Lance Revell has since revised his opinion of big New Zealand heavyweight Kali Meehan, who steps into the ring and the world spotlight in New York today.

In terms of sport involving New Zealanders, the contest between 34-year-old Meehan, formerly of Auckland, and Rahman will attract a mass international audience.

Yet Meehan is almost unknown at home. We might have welcomed back the Unknown Warrior this week, but Meehan will be another largely unknown warrior in New York's famed Madison Square Garden today.

And this is the big time - even if there is some cynicism about Meehan's right to be talked about in world terms.

Meehan is taking on Rahman, the hard-hitting former world champion most remembered because he sent Lennox Lewis to the canvas in 2001 - although a more focused and fitter Lewis reversed the outcome in a rematch shortly after.

That alone gives Meehan credibility, as he and Rahman are Don King fighters and the fuzzy-haired one controls heavyweight boxing. The winner of this fight will likely be in line for a title shot in international boxing's ludicrous cupboard of titles.

"This will be my hardest fight. He's a former undisputed champion, I'm the underdog," said Meehan. "I've not knocked out Lennox Lewis, but I'm planning on winning."

Meehan is ranked at number five in the world - depending on which of professional boxing's preposterous rankings you believe - but the 1.95m, 108kg Australian-based Meehan is a mystery man in his home town of Auckland.

He left New Zealand seven years ago for Australia, but back then the hulking heavyweight was more interested in becoming a fisherman than a fighter, until a chance call from a friend saw him taking on Australia's top heavyweight.

He'd been through Auckland's fledgling boxing scene with the genial trainer Gerry Preston (trainer of Jimmy Peau among others), but was probably best known, according to former Olympic silver medallist Paea Wolfgramm, for being the guy who put David Tua on the map.

Tua, the last New Zealander to fight for a world heavyweight title in his ill-fated bout with Lewis, was a raw 16-year-old who floored Meehan in the first round of their bout in the New Zealand championships in 1989 with what came to be known as Tua's trademark left. However, Wolfgramm was quick to point out that Meehan learned quickly.

"He came up from heavyweight to fight me at super-heavyweight. I'd sparred with him a few times and I guess you might say I took him a little easy. He fought very intelligently and did me on points. I knocked him down a couple of times, but he's smart with a big heart."

Revell says Meehan's assets are hand speed - he has a good jab - and the ability to hit and move well.

He says Meehan has also toughened up a lot over the years and is now a mature, strong, hungry fighter.

"He's certainly matured," said Revell. "Outside the ring, it's fair to say he is a gentle giant. But he has a mean look now. He can knock people out.

"I remember him from back in the '80s at Preston's gym. I remember him turning up to fight at Manukau one day and he was wearing shorts that had obviously been made by one of the mums and weren't big enough. He was all legs and Adam's apple. He looked like a bloody praying mantis."

It's not so now. Revell says Meehan has grown into a real prospect.

"He's got a lot going for him now. Don't worry about him being 34 - he was a late developer. I was still fighting at 36. He's mature, but hungry. Rahman and other fighters have been there, done that, and don't have his fire."

Rahman has lost three and drawn one of his last eight fights.

Meehan came to prominence when he fought US heavyweight prospect Lamont Brewster for the World Boxing Organisation heavyweight championship in September. His wife Rowena and sons Louis (10), Willis (nine) and Isaac (four) were at ringside for the fight. Brewster had won the belt by beating much-vaunted giant Ukrainian Wladimir Klitchsko after surviving a knock-down.

Meehan, after winning a series of fights against even lesser-knowns, was offered as an easy defence for Brewster, but in the eighth round, the unheralded Meehan fired off a brutal volley of head shots. Only the ring ropes held Brewster up.

Many observers thought the fight should have been stopped, but the defending champion fought back and won on a controversial split decision.

Prior to that, Meehan was stopped in 32 seconds by the recent conqueror of Mike Tyson, Briton Danny Williams. Williams meets Vitali Klitchsko - brother of Wladimir and the more talented of the two - for the WBC title next month.

Meehan said of his bout with Williams: "I was shocked by how easy it was to hit him. I threw a jab and it landed easily. I thought, 'Oh my. I can't believe this.'

"But I was standing in front of him with my hands down and he threw this huge right that landed clean on my face. I got up, but instead of trying to survive, I tried to go out and take it to him. I was still a little groggy and threw a right and he threw one that landed. I was sitting on the canvas, laughing, thinking, 'This is not the way it was supposed to be going.' I knew then that I couldn't fight that way. I had to use my power."

He won all six of his fights after that, five by knockout, and believed he had proven himself in sparring sessions with WBA champion John Ruiz and Brewster, before the fight with Brewster.

"He's done it smart," said Revell.

"He got out of here and went to Australia where there are people with connections to Don King and Lou Duva - the two big men in US boxing. He's learned his trade the hard way - people like David Tua and Paea Wolfgramm went to the Olympics - and this could be his time."

"I think he's capable of an upset," said Wolfgramm.

"The odds are against him, but he's smart enough."