Rahman joins an illustrious club

Muhammad Ali raises arms after beating George Foreman

Upsets are what make boxing so special and there are few bigger than Hasim Rahman's defeat of Lennox Lewis in South Africa.

BBC Sport Online's Sanjeev Shetty traces the great upsets in the heavyweight division.

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Cassius Clay stops Sonny Liston in seven rounds
Miami Beach, Florida, 25 February 1964
Unthinkable as it seems now, Clay, latterly known as Muhammad Ali, was a huge underdog against the fearsome Sonny Liston.

Despite an unbeaten record and obvious ability, few people gave the 22-year-old a chance of lasting a round with the man that had twice knocked out Floyd Patterson.

Yet Clay refused to be intimidated and went right to Liston, hurting the champion with stinging jabs and vicious right hands.

The then Cassius Clay stopping Sonny Liston

Despite suffering problems with his vision in the fourth round, Clay laid enough punishment on his opponent to discourage him from leaving his corner for the start of the seventh round.

So unexpected was the outcome that many people suspected the fight had been fixed, a theory that was exploded when a rematch ended in a round a year later.

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Muhammad Ali knocks out George Foreman in eight rounds,
Kinshasa, Zaire, 30 October 1974

At 32, Ali was now past his best. So much so that even his most ardent admirers feared for his health against Foreman, who had destroyed Joe Frazier in two rounds.

After a classic first round where Ali stood toe-to-toe with his opponent and traded right hands, the former champion retreated to the ropes.

Now known as the 'rope-a-dope', Ali suckered his younger opponent into tiring himself out by inviting him to throw punches at his unprotected body.

Whether the tactis worked because of Ali's immense courage or because of Foreman's lack of fitness, the world will never really know.

But one thing was obvious - by the eighth round, Foreman was spent and one solid Ali right hand was enough to see the title change hands.

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James 'Buster' Douglas knocks out Mike Tyson in 10 rounds,
Tokyo, Japan, 11 February 1990

In terms of odds, it is difficult to believe that there will ever be a bigger upset in boxing than this one.

The only odds one could get on Douglas were 40-1 against. Set against a back drop which saw his mother die shortly before the fight and few gave him a chance of making the second round.

But there were hints, much like there were with Lewis' defeat, that the champion was underestimating his opponent.

Tyson turned up heavier than ever in Japan and was knocked down by his sparring partner Greg Page.

The fight turned out to be as one-sided as expected, but with a very different result.

Douglas controlled the fight from the start and after rising from an eighth round knockdown, he dropped Tyson for the count in the tenth round.

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Evander Holyfield stops Mike Tyson in 11 rounds,
Las Vegas, America, 9 November 1996

Evander Holyfield - a 25-1 underdog

A supposedly washed up Holyfield, plagued by ill health and at the age of 34 was considered just a tune-up for Tyson, who was getting set for a fight with Lennox Lewis.

But the 25-1 underdog make fools of just about everyone - only writer Ron Borges of The Boston Globe tipped Evander to win.

He floored a lacklustre Tyson in the sixth as well as opening up a cut over the champion's eye.

The beaten man would later reveal that he had fought on instinct from the third round on.

Thoes instincts could not save him in the eleventh round, when the late Mitch Halpern, the referee for the fight, stepped in to stop the fight.