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By Doug Fischer - With the month of July underway the countdown for a pair of pivotal bouts officially begins for two of my all-time favorite gym fighters, James Toney and Antonio Margarito.
Toney, who turns 40 next month, will engage in what could be his last high-profile fight against familiar foe, former heavyweight champ Hasim Rahman. The rematch between the two veterans, a Fox Sports Net-televised main event from the Pechanga Resort & Casino in Temecula, will take place on the 16th of this month (a Wednesday).
That gives me this weekend and all of next week to schedule a “pop in” at Toney’s new gym, the 360 Health Club in Reseda, and try to catch the master ply his craft in the ring.
Of all the gym legends I’ve witnessed in Southern California boxing clubs over the past 15 years, from Shane Mosley to Edwin Valero, no other fighter comes close to blending the Sweet Science with the art of the beatdown like ‘Lights Out’.
Toney makes his sparring partners and ring opponents miss, then he makes them pay, and then he tells them about it in rather colorful language.
However, it was a low key and jovial Toney that met the local boxing media at Sisley Italian Kitchen in Sherman Oaks last month, not the bombastic and impetuous ruffian who seemed to delight in exploding into tantrums at most of the press events he took part in during the last two decades. [details]
Toney, who turns 40 next month, will engage in what could be his last high-profile fight against familiar foe, former heavyweight champ Hasim Rahman. The rematch between the two veterans, a Fox Sports Net-televised main event from the Pechanga Resort & Casino in Temecula, will take place on the 16th of this month (a Wednesday).
That gives me this weekend and all of next week to schedule a “pop in” at Toney’s new gym, the 360 Health Club in Reseda, and try to catch the master ply his craft in the ring.
Of all the gym legends I’ve witnessed in Southern California boxing clubs over the past 15 years, from Shane Mosley to Edwin Valero, no other fighter comes close to blending the Sweet Science with the art of the beatdown like ‘Lights Out’.
Toney makes his sparring partners and ring opponents miss, then he makes them pay, and then he tells them about it in rather colorful language.
However, it was a low key and jovial Toney that met the local boxing media at Sisley Italian Kitchen in Sherman Oaks last month, not the bombastic and impetuous ruffian who seemed to delight in exploding into tantrums at most of the press events he took part in during the last two decades. [details]
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