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Sunday, March 19, 2006
Purging of title pretenders in the ‘heavy-wait’ division
By
Jingo Quijano
Boxing Commentary
Boxing's heavyweight division today, which is supposed to be the most glamorous of all the divisions, is a desolate landscape, to say the least.
The departure of Lennox Lewis and, subsequently, Vitali Klitschko was like pulling the plug off a terminally-ill ICU patient. Last time I checked, the top 10 was inhabited by recycled ex-champions (Hasim Rahman, Chris Byrd and John Ruiz), perennial contenders (Wladimir Klitschko and, for goodness sake, Danny Williams) and untested wannabes and upstarts (Lamon Brewster, Calvin Brock, Samuel Peter and Nicolay Valuev and former eating…err... middleweight champ James Toney).
The fact that Toney and Rahman will be disputing the WBC heavyweight championship today speaks volumes about the dearth of heavyweight talent today. Be that as it may, I am glad this is happening as some of these pretenders have got to go, and what better way than to let them beat the hell out of each other.
Rahman is a clumsy, oafy heavyweight whose only claim to fame was landing a lucky punch on Lennox Lewis, which was handsomely repaid by Lennox Lewis via a fourth-round KO in their rematch. He also lost to an ancient Evander Holyfield, drew with an impotent David Tua and lost to clutchmaster John Ruiz. But he does have a clubbing right hand, which can separate any heavyweight in the world today from his senses, no ifs and buts about it.
Toney is possibly the most talented of the bunch, but is undersized for the biggest division in boxing. He is a former middleweight, super middleweight and cruiserweight champ whose counterpunching skills and superb defense will befuddle and wear out most of the heavyweights. But standing at only 5-foot-10 and at 36 years of age, he will have to work doubly hard to prevent a good solid punch thrown by any of the big boys from landing and doing damage.
At the weigh-in for the fight, James Toney was at his worst, weight wise. He weighed in at a career high of 237 pounds of blubber compared to 238 rock solid pounds for Rahman.
Be that as it may, I have to pick Toney over Rahman. As long as he can keep the right hand at bay, as he usually does, Toney will outwork, outhustle and ultimately break down Rahman inside eight rounds.
After the fight, Hasim should file a petition for change of name before a competent court so he can now be legally called “Hasbeen Theman.” I’m tired of him climbing up on the top of the heavyweight echelon, proclaim himself to be the best, predict a long reign, only to disappoint us tremendously by coming up short in big fights. Let one of these pretenders fall in our continuing search for the true heavyweight champ.
(The writer is a regular boxing contributor to Homer Sayson’s column)
For Bisaya stories from Cebu. Click here. (March 19, 2006 issue)
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