By William MacKay: Although the outcome was less than satisfying for most people, including 39 year-old heavyweight James Toney (71-6, 44 KOs), he wasn’t about to walk away from his 3rd round TKO win last night over two-time heavyweight champion Hasim Rahman (45-7-2, 36 KOs) at the Pechanga Resort & Casino, in Temecula, California. The fight ended in less than desirable circumstances, however, with Rahman clashing head with Toney early in the 3rd round, causing a small cut over the left eye of Rahman. The seemed to really bother Rahman, who kept pawing at the cut for the remainder of the round.

Up to this point, Toney had been trailing in the fight, but with Rahman now almost totally focused on his small cut, Toney began to tee-off on him with right hands to the head, hitting him often until the end of the round. Rahman fired back with his own shots but he was wildly throwing them, and missing badly more often than not.

After the round, Rahman complained to the ringside doctor Paul Wallace, telling him that he couldn’t see out of his left eye, that it was blurry. This obviously was the wrong thing to say to a ringside doctor, for he did the natural thing after being told that by Rahman, immediately telling the referee Ray Corono that fight should be stopped. Since it was Rahman who pointed out that he was injured rather than the doctor, the fight was ruled a TKO win for the Toney. The cut didn’t seem all that bad from what I could see of it, but it was clearly bothering Rahman.

Afterwards, Toney said this about Rahman: “He was looking for a way out…If I was him, I’d still be fighting…I would have knocked him out in seven rounds.”

Rahman, 35 had this to say, “Blood was pouring into my eye. My vicious was blurry. He [Toney] was hitting me with shots I couldn’t see. This was the worst damn decision period.”

The end of the fight reminded me somewhat of Rahman’s fight with Evander Holyfield in 2002, in which Rahman was doing well until he bumped heads with Holyfield, causing a large bump to appear on Rahman’s head. After that, Rahman began to fight very tentatively, appearing to worry more about the bump than on fighting well against Holyfield.

Toney looked slow and lethargic in the 1st round, not throwing many punches. If he spent time on training, like he said he had, it didn’t appear to be the case, because he looked badly out of shape with a large roll of fat around his midsection. From appearances, he easily looked to be 30 lbs overweight, probably more like 40, if I were to take a ballpark guess. Rahman didn’t look to good himself, even though he wasn’t fat. His arms appeared to be too big, and it caused him to fight slower than he had earlier in his career. As far as the action goes, Rahman spent the better part of the round jabbing Toney to the belly and head from a distance. Every once in awhile, Rahman would land a right hand but there wasn’t much put on the punches.

In the 2nd round, Toney was able to land several clean right hands, hitting Rahman flush each time. Each time Toney would land, the crowd would cheer loudly for him. I think it wasn’t a case of them liking him more than Rahman, but rather Toney landing the better shots. Toney showed much more energy in the round, moving his torso to avoid shots and trying to take the fight to Rahman. However, Toney didn’t do nearly enough to win the round, as Rahman landed far more jabs, right hands and lefts to easily win the round.

In the 3rd, Rahman was doing well at the start of the round, until he bumped into Toney while trying to land a punch. Immediately, Rahman backed off and began rubbing his eye. Toney, not one to stand by and let an opportunity go by, immediately went after Rahman and began tagging him with right hands. As much as Rahman said afterwards that he couldn’t see out of his left eye because of the blood, there was actually very little blood coming from the cut, and he wasn’t blinking out of the eye as if blood was in his eye. For the remainder of the round, Toney landed the much better shots as Rahman fluctuated between not punching at all and fighting wildly, throwing both hands with little form.

After the fight, Rahman said that he’ll be appealing the verdict and is hoping that it will be overturned and ruled a no-contest. Toney didn’t appear interested in fighting Rahman for a third time, instead saying “I’m the best heavyweight in the world…Samuel Peter, you will see me again…Klitschko, you’re a bum and your sister Vitali.”