Hasim Rahman James Toney rematch?

Question

Who wins, how will they win and why do you think that will be the outcome?

The first time around, I had Rahman winning a close decision against Toney, who looked out of shape. However, this time around both guys are past-their-prime fringe contenders, and with the winner guaranteed to get back into the heavyweight top ten again, which one of them will pull out the victory and how?

Answer 1

I don't think Rahman's edge in recent activity makes up for Toney's advantage in skill.  Taking two fighters at the point these two are in their careers, I'll always give it to the technician, and Toney is still a great technician.

Both guys are going to be "economical" with their punches, and I don't think either can KO the other, so you have to go with the fighter with the better skills...which is Toney, he'll make Rahman miss and land enough to take a meaningless decision.

I think they should both call it a day, Rahman is on his way to becoming a trial horse in the division, and its the most dangerous division in any sport to be a measuring stick - he could get seriously hurt.  Toney should retire and get into shape, as backwards as that sounds, he is one of my favorite fighters of all-tim but he looks like he's going have a heart attack before he's 45.

Answer 2

Rachman by 3 rounds. Toney is just aweful now. he doesn't even try and train anymore. he is almost 40 30 ounds overweight obvisouly suffers from puglist dementia(punch drunk) and has tested psotive for 'roids twice. granted Rachman is not much better but  Toney has a lot more ground to cover before I can even take him seriously.

Answer 3

same way probably

Answer 4

since toney last fought , rahman had 4 fights, 2 of which went to the 10th round, so he's been more active.

it depends on how seriously both take the fight, with a possible title shot waiting for the winner, but i am preliminarily going with rahman to take this one.

Answer 5

Rahman, Toney has been on a downward spiral for a while now and doesn't seem at all motiated. Rahman has stayed busy, building himself back up to contender status, and you could see in Rahman's last post-fight interview that he was serious about getting another title, Toney is probably just in it for the money. Even if Toney was focused, I still say Rahman wins.

Answer 6

This fight is a complete joke, and its a shame that the winner will most likely get another shot at a world title even though they don't deserve it.  After their first fight, James Toney went on to lose to Samuel Peter twice (I thought he won the first fight), and then he went on to barely beat a journeyman named Dan Batchelder.  Rahman on the other hand has won four fights against terrible opposition since losing to Oleg Maskaev.  And I remember in his last fight, he almost got KNOCKED OUT by a journeyman named Zuri Lawrence who has ZERO knockouts on his record.  He won the fight by stoppage, but he obviously didn't look good.  As for who I think will win the rematch, I would probably have to go with Rahman by a boring decision.  He has been  more active than Toney and he is younger and in MUCH better shape, but then again, you never know with either of these guys.  They are both past his prime and as you said, fringe contenders, but Rahman at the present time is closer to his prime and should still have enough left to beat an out of shape Toney.  The time has past when it was just enough for Toney to get by on his skills- if they were both in their prime at heavyweight, then Toney would win easily because he was always the better skilled fighter, but as it stands, I have to favor Rahman by unanimous decision.  Toney is too tough to be stopped and he will probably win a few rounds, but Rahman will most likely outpunch him at this stage.

Edit: James Toney is no longer a great technician.  He was in his prime all the way up to a few years ago, but he no longer is- those days are LONG GONE (he does not have the great advantage in skill that he used to have).  If you saw his last fight when he almost lost to Dan Batchelder in a split decision win, then that should show you that he is done as a top level fighter and will most likely lose to a more active and younger fighter in Hasim Rahman (who was always a natural heavyweight, unlike Toney who started out as a middleweight).

Answer 7

Who cares?  Neither of them ever liked to train.  The one thing that makes some champions great is the fact that ALL his comtempories are NOT in the gym when he IS in the gym.  

ALI is the ONLY exception to this.  ANY of his contempories could be champion in another era.  EVERYONE always bought his "A-game"  when facing ALI so he didn't have it as easy as any other champion.  Holmes had a decent batch of "Rogues" too.  They, like Larry himself, were not always given much credit because they followed ALI too.  

Larry beat Witherspoon, Bonecrusher, Williams and Weaver, to name a few.   I dare say that any of these men could fight other champs in another era and do well.  How would Braddock, Patterson or Johansson do against any of them?  Is it a guarentee that they would win?  I don't think so.

The thing that makes ALI, Louis, Marciano and Holmes special is that they best THE BEST avaliable competition AT THEIR BEST.  There are so many "Fractures" during the reigns of all other champions.

Neither Toney nor Rahman ever reached his best because neither could get out of the kitchen long enough to train.  This makes their comtemporaries better than them.  Lennox Lewis deserves credit too because he best the best of his era.  It's not his fault that Bowe was afraid to face him but he DID beat Tyson and Holyfield.  

The problem with Rahman and Toney is that they are not consistant.  IT's not bad that Rahman lost to Lewis,  who is simply a better fighter.  The problem is that he showed up out of shape and never again reached the peak of his potential.  

Why should either bother fighting?  It just shows that neither has much in the way of discipline so what's the point?  Even in today's weak division neither could do enough to win the time or even earn a shot.   IF Don and Co.  were smart they would just allow Wladimir Klitschko to unify the title.   It would bring MUCH needed attantion to the sport.

Answer 8

This fight will be a draw. Rahman will come in out of shape and let a old, out of shape Toney look good. They are doing nothing more than stealing.