14.03.06 – By Tim Neilson: It’s hard to believe that on Saturday night, March 18, we’ll probably be seeing the two best heavyweights in the divison when Hasim Rahman & James Toney face off against each other for the WBC heavyweight title. Both fighters are somewhat long in the tooth in heavyweight terms with Rahman at 33-years-old and Toney fighting at 37, yet strangely enough, they’re clearly the best in the division as far as I’m concerned.
It’s all pretty sad, no doubt. Who would ever thought that Rahman, who is now a two-time heavyweight champion would be at the top of the division, especially when looking at his fight history over the best 5 years where he’s lost to Lennox Lewis, Evander Holyfield and John Ruiz, while fighting to a draw with David Tua.
Well, believe it or not, all it took for Rahman to get back to to the top was wins over fighters like Terrence Lewis, Kali Meehan and Monte Barrett. That’s not to take anything away from them, as their good fighters, all of them, yet none of them are hardly house hold names at this point nor or they on the verge of stardom. It seems to me, Rahman should instead be fighting someone, like Oleg Maskaev, the # 1 rated challenger in the WBC, a fighter who has already knocked out Rahman in November 1999, courtesy of a devastating right hand which knocked Rahman clear out of the ring.
Now, that’s a fight I’d like to see. In fairness to Rahman, originally he was supposed to fight Vitali Klitschko in November, however, when Klitschko suddenly retired, that all went out the window, leaving Rahman with an empty slate. What would have happened had Rahman fought Klitschko, is anyone’s guess at this point, being that he’s now out of the fight game. Nevertheless, the fight would have been exciting, for houwever long it lasted.
So, from a matchup standpoint, just looking at the size differences between Rahman and Toney, most people would assume that Rahman, being the bigger fighter at 6’3″ compared to Toney’s rather petite 5’9,” would have any easy time pounding him into submission. However, Toney is a defensive genious, with a long history of making other fighters miss punches and look bad. At the same time, Toney is an excellent counter puncher, who takes advantage when his opponent miss, landing sharp combinations. In the heavyweight divsion, there’s few, if any, fighters that can throw combinations effectively. Wladimir Klitschko, in the early part of his career, could put his punches together, yet he is now so gun shy and seemingly beaten down, after having been starched previously by Corrie Sanders, Ross Purity and Lamon Brewster, that he has turned into a one punch and retreat-type fighter, thus ruining his best offesive assets. In the best possible world, Rahman, if he’s following instructions, could possibly dominate Toney, using his jab alone. However, in the past, Rahman hasn’t seemed disciplined in fighting, often going all out, looking for a knockout, perhaps due to laziness of not wanting to go the distance.
My prediction is that Rahman won’t be able to help himself and well get lulled into trying to take out Toney, and will get counter punched all night. I doubt seriously that Toney can knock out Rahman, considering that he hasn’t shown to have a lot of power after moving up from the Cruiserweight division, yet Toney will easily be able to put his hands on Rahman all night long, and ultimately winning by decision. To me, it’s sad, considering when looking at all the tools that Rahman has, for example, great right hand power, good left hook and a superb jab, he still seems to have lapses of concentration, which cost him in big fights, like in the Ruiz fight, where he should have easily won or the fight with Holyfield, another fight where he failed to utilize a good fight plan, thus costing him the fight. The fight outcome is entirely up to Rahman, as he has the superior size and offensive power to control this fight, no matter how much more skilled Toney is in overall ability. The trick is, Rahman’s got to avoid getting angry and trying to get even with Toney, as if he does that, he will be falling into a trap that will lead to his own demise.