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By Scott Shaffer
18/03/2006
Hasim Rahman D12 James Toney.... Hasim Rahman retained the WBC heavyweight title but suffered a dubious draw against James Toney in Atlantic City in a fight that Rahman appeared to win. John Stewart, scored it 117-111 for Rahman, while Tommy Kaczmarek and Nobuaki Uratani both had it 114-114. Watching on HBO, this writer agreed with Stewart. Toney weighed 237 pounds for the fight, an astonishing 77 more than when he won the middleweight championship in the early 1990s. He gave his best effort in the ring, but his weight makes it easy to conclude he didn't give his best effort preparing for the fight. Over the first three rounds, both men landed their punches frequently, but Rahman, a legitimate heavyweight, seemed to move Toney backwards with his punches. Still, an argument could be made that Toney won the second and third rounds. Beginning in round four, Rahman began to land his jab more effectively and Toney appeared to be slowing down a bit. Still, Punchstat numbers were close to even. Rahman was cut from an accidental headbutt in the middle rounds but his brother, a physician did a fine job of making sure the cut was not a major factor in the fight. Toney's punching accuracy may have earned him the seventh. In the eighth round, Rahman's punches did not hurt Toney but succeeded in knocking Toney off balance. Rahman's conditioning looked like the difference in the later rounds: in round eleven, he doubled Toney's punch output, 82-41. Rahman threw another 90 punches in the twelfth round but two of the judges were not convinced he did enough to win the fight. The bout was supposed to help clear up the muddled heavyweight picture but failed to do so. source: HBO Championship Boxing
