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By Jake Donovan - The two televised cards offered tonight couldn't be more opposite. FoxSports (11PM ET/8PM PT, Temecula, CA) offers a rematch between two very vocal thirty-something heavyweights who weren't very entertaining the first time around and haven't looked any better since then as both face the twilight of their respective careers.
ESPN2's Wednesday Night Fights telecast (10PM ET/7PM PT, San Antonio, TX) features a crossroads match between a pair of lean, humble twenty-something welterweights with only four losses between them, and very little wear and tear at a point in their careers when most fighters would be entering their prime.
Yet both fights carry the same theme – loser leaves town.
The win or go home label is a given for Hasim Rahman and James Toney, both of whom have seen better days and realize that long gone are the days when they could skimp on training and squander countless opportunities, with the belief that another is right around the corner.
The lesson doesn't appear to be lost on Toney (70-6-3, 43KO), who by all accounts has taken this fight more serious than any other in recent memory. Titles in four separate weight classes over a 19-year career (though his heavyweight trinket was repo'd after his post-fight urinalysis turned up dirty) have secured him a spot in the Hall-of-Fame, but it's been easy to lose sight of what he truly brings to the table thanks to subpar performances – and conditioning – over the past few years. [details]
ESPN2's Wednesday Night Fights telecast (10PM ET/7PM PT, San Antonio, TX) features a crossroads match between a pair of lean, humble twenty-something welterweights with only four losses between them, and very little wear and tear at a point in their careers when most fighters would be entering their prime.
Yet both fights carry the same theme – loser leaves town.
The win or go home label is a given for Hasim Rahman and James Toney, both of whom have seen better days and realize that long gone are the days when they could skimp on training and squander countless opportunities, with the belief that another is right around the corner.
The lesson doesn't appear to be lost on Toney (70-6-3, 43KO), who by all accounts has taken this fight more serious than any other in recent memory. Titles in four separate weight classes over a 19-year career (though his heavyweight trinket was repo'd after his post-fight urinalysis turned up dirty) have secured him a spot in the Hall-of-Fame, but it's been easy to lose sight of what he truly brings to the table thanks to subpar performances – and conditioning – over the past few years. [details]
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