All week long, the bout had been promoted in Cold War language with Rahman billed as "America's Last Line of Defence". The suggestion that the onetime conqueror of Lennox Lewis was battling to keep the WBC version of the title from being usurped by a former lieutenant in the Red Army was a convenient selling point. It was also wide of the mark.

Maskaev emigrated from Kazakhstan in 1995, is now an American citizen, and has been a long-time resident of the island that nestles between New Jersey and Manhattan. His supporters at the Thomas and Mack Centre even wore tshirts showing him standing before the stars and stripes flag. Despite one hyperbolic headline that read "Four Heavyweights of the Soviet Apocalypse", the situation is, like so much else in professional boxing today, not quite what it seems.

Maskaev is not unique among the quartet as all are men in different forms of exile from their homelands.

Following a tough battle with US immigration to secure a visa, WBO champion Sergei Lyakhovich swapped Belarus for the more clement climes of Scottsdale, Arizona, IBF titleholder Wladimir Klitschko prefers Hamburg to his native Ukraine, and although 7'2" Russian behemoth Nikolay Valuev is training in Armenia for his next WBA defence, most of his fighting has been done in Germany. Even if their current locations are diverse, the sudden Eastern Bloc dominance has caught America's attention.

"I think a lot of American heavyweights get it twisted, " said Rahman. "As soon as we get a little bit of success, then we want to go out and buy a bunch of jewellery and a bunch of cars and let everybody know we are somebody and we've accomplished something, when in actuality we really haven't accomplished anything. I think that we move a little too fast, as opposed to those Eastern Europeans. They stay hungry, and they stay on the quest. I just think they're solid and they train hard and they don't take things for granted and they don't have any distractions that most of the American heavyweights have. I think that's why they get a little more success because they are not Americanised, if you will, to the point where it's hurting their career."

The denouement of Maskaev's career lends weight to that view. Having prefaced his stint in the Soviet army with a couple of years in the Kazakh coal mines, he turned pro in 1993. At that time, the heavyweight scene was peopled by the likes of Riddick Bowe, Evander Holyfield, Lennox Lewis and a returned George Foreman, each trying to take advantage of Mike Tyson's stint in an Indiana prison. A journeyman then and for most of the intervening years, Maskaev (right) hung around until eventually being pitted against a champion he was capable of deposing. Of course, some would contend the very nature of his rise to prominence is a graphic illustration of the current dearth of talent in the division. The paltry showing of last week's contest at the box office and on pay per view backs up that opinion.

More than one analysis of Maskaev's victory over the more talented Rahman however has alluded to the simple fact that, like most European fighters, he listened better to his trainer. The inability to take instruction is just one of many theories being floated to explain the lack of American strength in this class.

Another posits the notion that these days larger kids are more attracted to grid-iron and basketball, games that enjoy much higher profiles than boxing, a sport which now languishes somewhere between the WWE and Ultimate Fighting in the public imagination. "If Muhammad Ali came around today he would be a tight end on the Louisville High School football team, " said legendary promoter Bob Arum last week. "And he wouldn't be in a sweaty gym looking to win an Olympic medal."

Even without a USborn champion, America remains the capital of the sport. Almost as soon as Maskaev-Rahman ended, there was talk of a November bout against Klitschko (the highestrated of the quartet) at Madison Square Garden in an attempt to unify at least two of the belts. Just a few miles from Brooklyn, the New York borough with a distinctly Russian flavour, the location would be perfect to cash in on the nationalities of both fighters. Similarly, Valuev (thought of more as a curiosity than a genuine talent) takes on Monte Barrett in Rosemont, Illinois in October, a contest his promoter Don King will no doubt hype as the invasion of a commie giant.

Far off Broadway, Evander Holyfield returned to the ring in Texas last Friday night fighting against Jeremy Bates, an insurance salesman from West Virginia. A couple of months before his 44th birthday, Holyfield's comeback is fuelled by an apparent desire to become the undisputed champ within two years.

An ageing fighter way past his prime coming out of retirement to back something his country regards as its own reads like the script from Rocky IV.

Unfortunately, this particular quest is unlikely to have a happy ending.