Wanted: Heavyweight Champion of The World
By Gabriel Montoya
(March 19, 2006)  
Photos © HoganPhotos.com
Saturday night had all the makings of the beginning of a banner year for the heavyweight division. With March Madness in the air, boxing’s glamour division looked to set its own brackets with the matchup of Hasim Rahman versus James Toney, and Chris Byrd versus Wladimir Klitchsko and Lamon Brewster versus Sergei Lyakhovich looming next month. But what should have brought clarity has instead brought more of the same hazy uncertainty from what has been boxing’s worst division as of late.

Rahman represents an enigma wrapped in a riddle. To some he is a chronic underachiever who has began to shows signs of late career maturity, while to others he is a middle of the road heavy with an elite level right hand and glass chin. With his finances in arrears it’s fair to say that Rahman needed to defeat Toney not only to retain his WBC trinket but to keep the smouldering flames of public interest burning.

Toney, that middleweight to heavyweight super-sized tub of wonder, was looking to relive the dream taken away from him last year when he beat John Ruiz for his WBA belt but was subsequently ruled ineligible to hold the title after failing a drugs test. All things being equal, it was widely accepted that Toney was the more skilled man going in but Rahman was the real heavyweight.

Toney took a cautious approach in the first round, gauging Rahman’s movements and throwing enough combinations to be in the game. Rahman was more active as he looked to set up the jab but he threw few right hands contrary to what many experts expected. Round two saw Toney pick up the pace as Rahman closed the distance and began to throw the right more often, setting off Toney’s rolling counter right. Toney’s sharp counter punching style came to life as the fight went to the ropes, a place Toney calls a second home these days. His punches may not be heavy at this weight, but the frequency with which they land tend to keep his opponents dizzy.

Round three saw Toney pick up the work rate as he had Rahman along the ropes, smothering his own punches and abandoning the jab. Thel Torrance, Rahman’s trainer, got him back on track after a closely contested fourth round that saw action in virtually every part of the ring. Toney hit the wall in the fifth as his punch output dropped off while Rahman stayed true to his gameplan and his corner’s advice to not follow Toney to the ropes. Toney himself went right crazy as he missed wildly several times.

The sixth round saw Toney come out firing but Rahman answered every flurry and the pace immediately slowed back down. Midway through the round the crowd began to boo as the pace on both ends slowed, immediately setting off some of the best action of the fight as both boxers traded in a phone booth along the ropes. Calling the action in this round exciting is a bit of an overstatement but with a pace that slow, any two punch combo was like water in the desert to a thirsty guy.

Judging has always been a subjective skill and by this point in the fight it really came down to which style of boxing you personally believed was more effective – heavy shots few and somewhat far between, or quick, sharp combinations that do relatively little damage?

Rahman’s own fatigue began to show in the seventh as Toney took over with fast little combos. Both corners implored their fighters to get behind the jab with Toney’s trainer Freddie Roach asking his fighter to follow it with a right. Toney came out and did just that as he looked to establish himself but Rahman used his strength to push the assault. The action was scintillating as they went to the corner where James held on for balance but still landed a right hand followed by an uppercut on Rahman. The volume was being landed by Toney but the power was landed by Rahman as the crowd began to chant Toney’s name and the actioned heated up.

The ninth round saw Toney come out boxing and again they stepped over to the ropes to fight in a phone booth. For the first time in the fight, the action was all Rahman along the ropes. Toney slipped the first half of the assault but Rahman kept working and Toney answered few times in kind. The tenth saw the action move a little more to mid-range as Rahman stayed with the jab and outworked Toney.

Round eleven saw Toney land possibly his best punch possibly of the night, a right cross that barely registered on Rahman. The action moved back to center ring where a jab contest ensued. Toney landed another good right hand late in the round but the action was pretty even with Rahman still pushing the pace of the fight.

The fighters came out for the twelfth round with Toney needing a KO to win and Rahman needing at least a knockdown to punctuate what looked like an imminent victory. Both fighters looked to make a statement that their weary bodies would not allow. Rahman closed the show like a champion with a flurry of punches as he looked to stop Toney, who had slowed to a crawl but still gamely slipped and ducked while being peppered by the Rock’s losing flurry. While this writer had it 7-4-1 for Rahman, two of the judges at ringside saw it even with judges Nobuaki Uratani and Tom Kaczmarek scoring it 114-114 and judge John Stewart seeing it 117-111 for Rahman.

Having this fight as a draw was the worst thing that could have happened to the heavyweight division with the exception of a Mike Tyson/Riddick Bowe showdown at a county fair in Wyoming for the simple fact that we may have to see it again. While Toney still has the skills that made him great, he lacks the discipline it takes to go twelve hard ones. As for Rahman, he can at least be rest assured that a Toney rematch will pull him farther out his financial malaise. If this is the best Rahman has, I can’t see him fairing any better against his contemporaries. The defensive leaks are too great to overcome, although few have ever looked good fighting Toney. What we wanted was a clear opponent for one of the other four titlist/contenders. What we got instead was a night devoid of both drama (save for the cut caused by a head butt in the 5th) and a clear force in the heavyweight division.

The search for a genuine Heavyweight Champion continues next month and hopefully the picture gets clearer.
© Copyright / All Rights reserved: Doghouse Boxing 1998-2006