Toney – and a Clash of Heads – Retires Rahman on Stool By Doug Fischer (July 17, 2008) Photo © German Villasenor Send this page to friend Give us your feedback TEMECULA, California – Just when the rematch between James Toney and Hasim Rahman was starting to get good, the plug on the Fox Sports Net-televised main event was pulled when an accidental heabutt opened a nasty cut over the left eye for the former heavyweight champ and ended the bout after three rounds. The official result of the disappointing bout – at least what was announced to the live and TV audiences – will go into the books as third-round technical knockout for Toney, whose record will improve to 71-6-3 (44) if the California commission upholds the ruling. For a time, while the crowd inside the packed Pechanga Resort & Casino ballroom booed the abbreviated action of the bout they came to see, it was thought that the official ruling would be a no-contest or no-decision because Fox Sports Net replays clearly showed that Rahman’s cut eye was the result of an accidental clash of heads. According to the Unified Rules of Boxing of the Association of Boxing Commissions, a fight that is stopped before the completion of four rounds due to an accidental foul should be ruled a no-contest. However, when ringside physician Dr. Paul Wallace visited Rahman’s corner in-between the third and fourth rounds he said he asked the former champ if he could see and if he wanted to continue and Rahman answered that he could not see three times, never saying that he could – or wanted – to continue. Because it was interpreted that the fighter determined that he could not continue, it was ruled that Rahman basically forfeited the fight. The fans near ringside had another way of describing what they thought happened; they hollered “Quitter!”, sparking one of Rahman’s younger boys who paced back and forth in front of the press row tables to holler back “Say it to his face!” Toney, of course, agreed with the fans. “I wanted to keep fighting but I made him quit,” he said after referee Ray Corona waved the bout off. However, Rahman and members of his promotional company, Top Rank, who were present disagreed with stoppage verdict and will likely protest the official decision. “It was a headbutt that caused the cut,” Rahman, now 45-7-2 (36), said after the fight. “I’m not going to fight with one eye. He didn’t hurt me, but I couldn’t see his right hands coming at me [after the butt].” Top Rank president Todd duBoef believes the wrong decision was made by California’s officials. “It was clearly a no-contest,” he told ringside reporters who were writing up their post-fight stories. “You’ll see, the decision will be overturned because it goes against the ABC’s Unified Rules. It doesn’t matter if the fighter can continue or not. The injury was caused by an accidental butt.” Whether the official verdict is a TKO or a no-contest, the outcome was a disappointment to fans because the fight – a rematch of a 12-round draw the two veterans engaged in two years ago – was just beginning to heat up in the third round. In the first round, both veterans looked comfortable as they took their time and tried to find range with their jabs. Toney was content to slip punches and drop an occasional up-jab, while Rahman was a little more active. In the second round, Toney got off his stool, doubling his jab and advancing towards Rahman, who looked to land his right hand and did so, grazing the former three-division champ. Toney worked an effective up-jab in retaliation, frustrating Rahman who began to fall into clinches where both big men worked each other’s bodies. Late in the round Toney landed a counter right that drew “oohs and ahhs” from the crowd, made Rahman miss and landed another one at the bell. In the third round, a seemingly warmed up Toney was out fast, landing a lead hook. Rahman paid him back with a right cross that knocked Toney off balance, but the squat master boxer landed another hook in close before slipping Rahman’s jab and tapping his massive muscular body. Toney stepped out of range and landed a lead right which caused a frustrated Rahman to reach with his punches. Toney was gradually working himself into his rhythm. In the final minute of the round, Toney landed a one-two combination that stunned Rahman momentarily. Rahman attacked just before the bell, pinning Toney to the ropes where both heavyweights landed punches. It was starting to get good. And then it ended abruptly. “He wanted out,” Toney told the press after conducting his TV interviews. “He wanted out when he saw me at the weighin.” Toney weighed 227 for tonight’s bout, his lightest weight since his victory over Evander Holyfield five years ago. “I was planning to stop Rahman around the seventh round,” Toney said. “He knew what was coming.” So what’s next? “The sky’s the limit,” Toney said. “I’m the best heavyweight in the world, so I’ll fight anyone. They keep hiding those bums from me. I’ll fight [Wladimir] Klitschko and I’ll fight his sister!” THE UNDERCARD In a televised matchup of two undefeated junior featherweight prospects, L.A.’s Rico Ramos out-pointed Jonathan Velardez, from Houston by way of Riverside, in a sometimes awkward four-round bout. Ramos, who improved to 5-0 (3), won by unanimous scores of 39-37 on the strength of his greater hand speed and a number of clean left hooks that he landed on Velardez, a squat southpaw who is the younger brother of former featherweight title challenger Bobby Boy Velardez. The two youngsters, both of whom were amateur standouts, let their hands go in the first round. Velardez, now 6-1 (4), was the more aggressive prospect, but Ramos landed the cleaner punches. In the second round the fight settled into an awkward tempo due to Velardez’s lefty stance and Ramos’s counter-punching style. A wild right hand opened a cut in the corner of Velardez’s left eye near the end of the second but the trickle of blood didn’t deter the strong stocky southpaw from lunging into Ramos with mauling tactics in the third round. Ramos tried to get his jab going against the in-and-out attack of Velardez but settled for landing occasional hooks. A frustrated Velardez hit Ramos in the belly on a break but the speedy Angelino paid him back with a clean one-two combination before the bell. In the fourth round, Velardez scored effectively to Ramos’s body when inside and landed single right hooks from the outside, but the lefty hit his groove too late in the short preliminary bout. Santa Barbara’s junior middleweight prospect Francisco Santana improved to 9-1 (5) with a fourth-round stoppage of Ontario’s Alejandro Bogarin. Santana dropped Bogarin with a short hook in the first round and punished him with short right crosses in the next two and half rounds, which exhibited two-way free-swinging action until Bogarin, now 8-6-3 (2), was floored and counted out at 2:34 of the third round. Oxnard’s Carlos Herrera improved to 2-2 (1) with a four-round decision over Indio’s Juan Angel Zavala. Herrera scored a first-round knockdown in the entertaining slugout. With the loss Zavala dropped to 0-2. In a matchup of unbeaten junior welterweights, Bakersfield’s speedy Mike Dallas Jr.out-pointed a badly bloodied but unbowed Artemio Reyes Jr. by scores of 39-36 and 39-37 (twice) to improve to 4-0. Dallas exhibited blazing hands throughout the bout but not a whole lot of power. Still, the Jackie Kallen-managed prospect never stopped punching – usually in combination – and his occasional showboating got a rise out of the crowd. Dallas is a very aggressive and athletic boxer with a solid technique and a flair for showmanship, but he needs to learn how to settle down a bit because his non-stop punching began to take its toll late in the third round and nearly cost him dearly in the final seconds of the fourth when he was clearly gassed and on the receiving end of some heat from Reyes, but he’s definitely worth watching. With the loss, tough guy Reyes dropped to 1-1 (1). In the opening bout of the evening, heavyweight Marcus Dickerson improved to 2-0 (2) with a sloppy-but-entertaining third-round knockout of debuting Helaman Olguin. The two green heavyweights were painfully raw but well matched. Olguin, a southpaw from Lancaster, had better balance, footwork and punching technique than San Diego’s Dickerson, who was the more athletic and powerful of the two novices. The two took turns stunning each other in rounds one and two until Dickerson dropped Olguin three times in the third. Olguin, now 0-1, was felled as much from his own fatigue than he was from Dickerson’s wild haymakers. Referee Dr. James Jen Kin waved the bout off at 2:04 of the third round. For Questions or Comments E-Mail Doug Fischer at dougie@maxboxing.com Discuss this Topic - Go to the forums