According to his agent, former heavyweight boxing champ Hasim Rahman is planning on migrating to MMA sometime this year.

You may remember Rahman as the powerhouse that KO'd Lennox Lewis in 2001, securing the heavyweight title. Although he recently lost his title due to ref stoppage in his Dec. 13th bout with Wladimir Klitschko, Rahman currently holds a professional fight record of 45-7 (36 knockouts) and his agent says he is "quite serious about fighting in MMA".

Apparently street fighter turned internet celebrity turned professional fighter Kimbo Slice was part of the motivating force that convinced Rahman he should join the MMA community.

“He thought it would be an interesting thing. He’s seen Kimbo Slice fight on TV", said his agent. "And he’s like, ‘I’d like to fight some of these guys,’ ”.

Rahman and his representation are currently in talks with several promotion companies and are hoping to schedule his debut MMA match sometime within the next 2-3 months.

Although Hasim Rahman has no formal MMA training to speak of, an incident back in 2001 may have been a foreshadow of things to come. Many of you may remember Rahman successfully took down Lewis during a brief scuffle that occurred on an ESPN set while they were promoting their upcoming match.

Only time will tell how Rahman's boxing power and TV studio grappling moves will translate in a sanctioned MMA event.