By Eric Thomas: James Toney (70-6, 43 KOs) will likely be facing 6’5″ Tony Thompson on December 6th for one of the lesser heavyweight title belts at stake. Toney stated in a recent interview on Versus that he has plans on facing Thompson on the 6th of December, and then after that, Toney plans on going after the other top heavyweights in the division. Thompson, 36, is coming off a disappointing performance against IBF/WBO heavyweight champion Wladimir Klitschko, who knocked Thompson out in the 11th round on July 12th in Germany. Thompson fought poorly and was never able to get his high volume offense untracked against the giant 6’6″ Klitschko.

For his part, Toney is coming off a three-round no contest with former heavyweight champion Hasim Rahman on July 16th. Toney, now 40, was doing well in the bout at the time the fight was stopped due to a large cut that Rahman had sustained over his left eye. However, Toney looked rusty and sluggish in the first two rounds, and it’s unclear whether he could have fought hard for the full 12 rounds against Rahman without tiring out and losing the bout.

To be sure, it was Toney’s first fight in a year after being suspended, and because of that, a certain amount of ring rust could be expected from him. The big question is, how much of it was ring rust and how much was just plain old age? At 40, Toney is probably at the very tail end of his career and it would seem unlikely that he can continue to perform well against the top fighters in the division.

Though he might stick around for awhile and serve as a gatekeeper, there’s a big question mark looming over his head as to whether he can still be effective against the top heavyweights in the division. In the case of Thompson, ranked #13 in the IBF and #12 in the WBO, Toney is facing one of the best heavyweights in the division, someone who is much better than his ranking would indicate. This would seem like a bad match-up for Toney to deal with, because of Thompson’s big height and reach advantage, as well as him being a southpaw. Thompson isn’t much of a puncher, and probably doesn’t hit quite as hard as the shorter 5’9″ Toney, but he more than makes up for it by throwing a lot of punches and landing often against his shorter opponents.

Against Wladimir, Thompson met up with someone equal to him in size, but younger, more powerful and much faster in terms of hand speed. This is why Thompson looked not his best against Klitschko. However, even though he ended up losing to Klitschko, Thompson landed the most punches that Klitschko have ever been hit with before in a fight. That counts for something, and showed how much trouble Thompson can be against the fighter considered to be the best heavyweight in the division.

Probably most other heavyweights would have been taken out by the 6th round with ease, yet Thompson fought well until the 11th when he was taken out with some big shots from Klitschko. Toney, however, doesn’t have the power, speed or size that Klitschko possesses, meaning that unless Toney can come up with a lucky shot and possibly knock Thompson out, Toney is likely going to lose the fight. Thompson is just too big for someone as small as Toney to deal with.

This isn’t the case of Toney facing a small cruiserweight like Vassily Jirov, whom he outworked at close range to win a 12-round decision against in 2003, this is a fighter that literally towers over Toney and prefers to fight at a distance. I don’t see this fight going well for Toney. In fact, I see him losing badly to Thompson, who will probably pound away at Toney from a safe distance without having to worry about getting hit with one of his short counter shots. I can’t see Toney winning more than a round, possibly two at best, because he’s just not looked good in the past three years in his fights with Samuel Peter, losing both of them against the crude slugger. Then to top it off, Toney struggled to a 10-round split decision win over Danny Batchelder in May 2007. That fight alone seems to indicate that there’s something seriously wrong with Toney, whether it be age, weight problems or whatever. Thompson would probably easily beat Peter, and of course, Batchelder without any problems. Toney does have a chance, because he has a lot of boxing skills going for him, but against a fighter as large as Thompson, I seriously doubt he will have enough left in the tank to beat him.