Photo credit: Jan Sanders/Goossen Tutor Promotions – By Jim Dower: Tonight, heavyweights Hasim Rahman (45-6-3, 36 KOs) and James Toney (70-6-3, 43 KOs) fight for the little known WBO NABO heavyweight title at the Pechanga Resort & Casino in Temecula. The title is not important, in this case, but what is important is that one of them moves on with his boxing career, while the other finds himself in a bad situation with retirement perhaps the best option.

Both fighters are well up there in age, with Toney, 39, leading the way and the soon to be 36 year-old Rahman not far behind. Both fighters seem to have been forgotten by the general boxing public, rarely mentioned on boxing websites, or discussed in television broadcasts when the subject of top heavyweights is brought up. Rahman has twice won and lost heavyweight titles, most recently losing his title in a sensational 12th round knockout to Oleg Maskaev in August 2006. As for Toney, he blew his only shot at a title after beating John Ruiz in April 2005, he later failed a post-fight drug test, causing the fight to be ruled a no-contest.

Toney, an outstanding fighter and future hall of fame boxer with championships won in the middleweight, super middleweight and cruiserweight divisions, has found only moderate success since moving up to the heavyweight division in 2003. Although he started off well as a heavyweight, beating Rydell Booker, John Ruiz, and Dominick Guinn. After that, however, Toney began having problems when he started facing bigger fighters, like Rahman, whom he fought to a 12-round draw with in 2006. Ignoring the poor shape that Toney came into the bout, he appeared to be just too small to beat a fighter as large as Rahman.

The dismal condition that Toney came into the bout only compounded the problem. The draw that he was eventually given in the fight didn’t seem to match what had actually transpired in the fight, because Rahman out-worked Toney over the entire 12-rounds, and appeared to do more than enough to get the decision. Toney would then lose twice to Samuel Peter, a powerful Nigerian knockout artist known for his ferocious punching power.

In his two fights against Peter, and his last fight against Danny Batchelder, Toney appeared to have problems fighting hard for the entire three minutes of every round. Often, he would take rest breaks against the ropes, covering up and countering. In a way, the fights looked more like sparring matches than actual fights because of Toney’s frequent rest periods in the fights.

In the second half of his two fights with Peter, Toney looked tired and had major problems matching the pace of the Nigerian fighter. It’s doubtful anything has changed since those fights, even though Toney is coming into tonight’s fight at 226 lbs, the lowest weight he’s been since beating Holyfield in October 2003. He still looks overweight, and, of course, small for a heavyweight.

Rahman appears to have a little more left due to his power, but not much. His chin gave out on him in his bout with Maskaev in 2006, the second occasion that he had been knocked out by him. And, despite what looked to be a promising career early on, he’s suffered disappointing losses to David Tua, Lennox Lewis, Maskaev, Holyfield and John Ruiz. Even with a victory over Toney tonight, it’s doubtful that Rahman, ranked #4 in the IBF, could beat a fighter like IBF heavyweight champion Wladimir Klitschko.