I had the fight scored 116-113 for James Toney. There were some close rounds in there but, they way I score a fight is which guy would I rather be after every round and more often than not it was James Toney, who was landing all the tough leather and believe me at ringside you could see how he was busting up Rahman. In one occasion, after Toney hit Rahman with a left hook, referee Ed Cotton’s shirt had blood on it; that right there made up for any pitter patting jabs as well as the body slaps to Toney’s spare tire that Rahman was landing.  If you had never seen either guy fight before, you would have thought -from the way they were fighting- that Rahman was the middleweight moving up and that James Toney was the true heavyweight. 

John Stewart, the judge, not the host of the funny “Daily Show,” had the score a shocking 117-11 in favor of Hasim Rahman, while the other two judges had it a more agreeable 114-114 draw, which most ringsiders found palatable enough. I do have to say, and I guess this is how people who scored the fight for Rahman were thinking, he was the busier fighter, and he put up a fight for his belt.  On the other hand, Toney seemed to really tire after the first three rounds, and he coasted for the next two, which helped Rahman, (and his supporters) get back into the fight. Still, regardless of all that, Toney landed the better shots and James himself said what needed to be said in the post fight sound. “Everybody knows I landed the harder punches,” said Toney. “Rahman was landing these flicking jabs, Rahman knows inside he didn’t beat me.”  

Sadly, once again Bob Arum will steer Rahman away from a rematch, which he should because a pissed off James Toney isn’t a fighter you want to deal with and if Toney came in at 220 or under, he’d win going away, even if he’s 37 years old. All of a sudden Oleg Maskaev’s name is being brought back up…who knows!?!