Yes they are. Don't know whatever possessed us think that this match-up wouldn't somehow end in raging disappointment.After three rounds of fairly decent action, James Toney and Hasim Rahman's very large heads collided, opening a gash above Hasim's eye and leaving both a little disoriented (see video 1). Toney (who despite claiming he worked harder than ever in training, still looked like an alien pod was incubating in his stomach) quickly capatilized on the occasion, landing quite a few big right hands before the round ended. And then it got weird.
In between rounds, the ringside physician came over to Rahman's corner to check the cut that was caused from the unintentional head-butt. Somewhere in the conversation, Hasim said that he was having trouble seeing out of his eye (the one that was affected by the butt). The ringside physician did exactly what he was supposed to do and stopped the bout when a fighter's vision is severely affected.
At the sound of the bell we saw James Toney fall to the floor in excitement for what he thought was a victory. After some deliberation before the announcer let us in on the ruling, Toney's camp realized the decision was not cut and dry and decided to sit down to wait anxiously in their corner.
Now what normally happens when an unintentional head-butt causes a cut that is bad enough to stop the fight within the first four rounds, the bout is ruled a no-contest. However, after the fourth round the decision will go to the score cards. Pretty simple right? Not quite.
Since the doctor ruled that the cut was okay to contiue, the fight was stopped on Rahman's exclamation of blurred vision in his left eye. Although the head-butt may have aided in his ailment, it is possible that it was caused from punches as well. So Rahman was, by his own admission, not able continue and James Toney was awarded the NABO heavyweight title (see video).
In his post interview, Toney mumbled something about how he is the best heavyweight in the division and slung some derogatory comments towards the number one heavyweight champion Wlad Klitschko (seems to be the "it" thing to do these days; see video above). And this is coming after a horrible and unconvincing technical victory.
Although Klitschko has not astounded us as of recently, there is no way James Toney should even get the chance to be mentioned in the same breath as Wlad. He is still out of condition and at age 40 has no chance of lasting 12 rounds with a man who is 7 inches taller, a ripped 241 lbs, and currently just a better fighter.
Toney get in the long line of Wald contenders, your at the end buddy.
No comments:
Post a Comment