By Nate Anderson: According to boxingtalk, former heavyweight champion Hasim Rahman (45-6-2, 36 KOs) will be fighting a title elimination bout on July 16th, which will be shown live on ESPN. Both Rahman and Toney are getting up there in age, with Rahman now 35 and Toney a ripe 39, so this may turn out to be a last ditch attempt for either of them to get a title shot. However, you can never say never and as bad as the current heavyweight scene is, even the loser may eventually find his way back into a title shot if only because of the lack of talent and big named fighters in the division.
Toney, 39, previously faced Rahman in March 2006, fighting for Rahman’s then WBC heavyweight title, with the fight turning out to be a controversial draw that left both fighters unsatisfied. Most people felt that Rahman had won the fight given his superior work rate during the fight. However, it was all for naught as the fight was ultimately ruled a 12-round draw. Rahman would turn around and his heavyweight title some five months later in a 12th round TKO loss to Oleg Maskaev in August 2006. Since that time, Rahman has beaten a string of mostly 3nd tier fighters, Taurus Sykes, Dicky Ryan, Cerrone Fox and most recently Zuri Lawrence, leaving many people to wonder when Rahman would eventually step it up against top level opposition once again.
At the same time, it wasn’t until his bout with Fox last year that Rahman had finally trimmed off the 25 lbs that he had gained after his disappointing loss to Maskaev in 2006. Against Lawrence, Rahman’s body looked great, yet he fought in a mostly lackluster style, as if he were bored. Obviously, some of that may be due to his lack of competition but at 35, you never know if it’s age creeping up on him as well. Certainly, Rahman is going to need to be at 100% for his bout with Toney if he expects to win, for Toney is the type of fighter that makes it tough on his opponents even under the best of circumstances.
For Toney, this may indeed turn out to be his last shot, because he hasn’t looked good in a fight since his win over Dominick Guinn way back in October 2005. Since that time, Toney has had the draw with Rahman in 2006, back to back losses to Samuel Peter in September 2006 and January 2007, and his last fight, and his last fight, a 10-round split decision win over Danny Batchelder in April 2007. It’s unclear how much Toney has left at this stage in his career.
He looked poor against Batchelder, barely defeating him by decision. That’s a fighter that any good heavyweight should be able to beat handily, yet Toney struggled with him. Now a year later, having had no fights since that time, Toney is going to get back in the ring with Rahman, who used his size to bull Toney around the ring for most of their last fight two years ago. It’s hard to figure much changing since then, in particular with Toney coming off a long layoff.