Who would have thought we'd be missing Lennox Lewis?

It was supposed to be the fight that would get the heavyweights rolling again, the stoush that would give us a clear favourite and an idea where the other guys really stood. I’m talking about Hasim Rachman V James Toney for the WBC heavyweight trinket. Toney had talked himself up and fattened himself up from middleweight thru cruiser to heavy. Somehow he’d got everyone’s imagination going and he was thought of as a genuine contender. We should have known better. After all who’d he beat? Oh yeah, Evander Holyfield on his way down and John Ruiz, that hardly counts. (An aside here - Ruiz is like Kylie Minogue and cockroaches – impossible to kill. The fucker will still be here after the nuclear bombs drop, with Kylie humming at his side and cockroaches scurrying around his feet waving contracts.) Rahman had his one big day in the sun, nailing Lennox with a perfect punch and has never been able to do it again. Still, at the moment this fight was the best the heavyweights had to offer. Right from the word go it looked like a mismatch. Toney looked like the fat kid who always does bombs in the pool. He’s got himself a championship fight and he comes in looking like that!? I know the belts are trinkets but come on show some respect. Rahman set the pace early throwing jabs and even wobbling fatboy but by the second round was drawn into the brawling/in close style that Toney wanted to fight. Despite this Rahman was still clearly in control. Behind the jab he looked great, why he kept choosing to then step in close and brawl is anyone’s guess.
Maybe after tasting a few Toney rights in the third he knew he couldn’t get hurt and so decided to stay in close; I don’t know but it probably cost him the fight in the end.
Toney did look good around 5/6 though he was already looking tired. After that he’d come out strong, throw a few haymakers then fade completely. Rahman was always in control, always had the answers and yet he had to settle for a majority draw.How this was judged a draw is beyond me. I had it 117/111 (as did one of the judges) – 9 rounds to 3 but I could see an argument for maybe 8 rounds to 4. I couldn’t see it even though, no matter how many times I watched it. So what fight were the other two judges watching? They were obviously having trouble seeing around fatboy’s girth because they didn’t seem to notice the work Rahman was doing. Of course, Rahman is to blame too. After all, he was the heavyweight, he should have been able to put Toney away. Where was the power, where was the big punch? He worked the body throughout the fight but he never really took advantage of that work. And with Don King involved (surprise!) we’ll probably have to sit through it all again. I just hope Byrd V Klitschko is a better fight. Actually that’s a bit unfair, it wasn’t a bad fight – wasn’t a great fight true but they did at least throw punches – it was just that the result was ridiculous and that Toney shouldn’t have even been there.
And what does Brewster have to do to get some recognition? At least he holds a trinket. Where did Toney come from to get the shot at Rahman first? Ah the foibles of boxing...
Now I'm just waiting for someone to give Ibragimov a chance. (not that it will happen but it’s on my wish list) then maybe we will see some movement in the heavyweights.