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Steroids plump up a fake heavyweight
Steroids plump up a fake heavyweight, By: Wallace Matthews
March 20, 2006, Newsday.com
So now the question must be asked: How much of James Toney's victory over John Ruiz last April was due to him, and how much was due to nandrolone?
Toney, of course, will say it was all him, but seeing him flounder for 12 rounds against Hasim Rahman Saturday night in Atlantic City raises some serious doubt.
Why did Toney, who has learned to wear his fat as comfortably as other men wear a jacket, get so tired so quickly against Rahman?
Why did the sneaky fast punches that shook up Ruiz merely bounce off Rahman, whose chin isn't exactly Mount Rushmore?
Why were Toney's legs so wobbly that he stumbled around the ring several times from shoves, nearly falling down at least twice?
The 5-9, 37-year-old former middleweight champion's pursuit of the heavyweight title seemed quixotic and refreshing against Ruiz - that is, before he tested positive for steroids in a post-fight drug screening - but merely ludicrous against Rahman.
The old joke about the two heavyweights in the ring not even being the two best heavyweights in the building was never truer than Saturday night at Boardwalk Hall, when two of the men in the crowd - 40-year-old Lennox Lewis and 48-year-old Tim Witherspoon - probably could have handled either of the men in the main event.
It was a grueling, sometimes plodding affair, fought at close quarters with both men exchanging short, sharp punches to the body, with Rahman's a lot more frequent and effective.
Despite dominating the bout, Rahman somehow needed to pull out the 12th round to salvage a draw and his WBC heavyweight title. The ridiculous decision aside, it was obvious that James Toney - assuming he tests clean this time - is simply not physically equipped to fight heavyweights.
Not even ordinary heavyweights like Hasim Rahman.
Which brings us back to the original question: How much did steroids help Toney beat Ruiz, admittedly a much lesser fighter even than Rahman?
It is the same kind of question we should be asking about Barry Bonds, Mark McGwire, Rafael Palmeiro, Jason Giambi, Roy Jones Jr., who tested positive after a 2000 fight in Indianapolis, and Shane Mosley, who was called in to testify before the BALCO grand jury.
What was real and what was fake? What would these people have accomplished using nothing but their natural abilities?
In Toney's case, the question must be reconsidered because it has been commonly assumed that even without chemical help, Toney would have been too slick and quick for the plodding Ruiz. Now, that assumption may turn out to be unfair to Ruiz, who, like Rahman, is at the very least a legitimate heavyweight in terms of size.
Would Toney have had the stamina to maintain his attack against Ruiz had he been fighting clean? Would he have had the punching power to get Ruiz's attention? Would he have had the strength to withstand 12 rounds of a 235-pound man leaning on him?
He had all of those things in April and none of them Saturday night, which renders his "punishment" - the voiding of his victory, a $10,000 fine and a 90-day suspension of his license by the New York State Athletic Commission - something of a joke.
Because in truth, Toney suffered nothing for his transgression. The 10 grand, of course, meant nothing to a fighter earning upwards of $2 million a fight, and like most fighters these days, Toney was going to lay on the couch and eat for at least 90 days after the Ruiz fight anyway.
And for the past 11 months, everyone figured the steroids were merely a foolish choice by a fighter who didn't really need them, or even, as he has contended, a "mistake" administered by a doctor to help rehabilitate a serious torn biceps tendon injury.
But now, it's time to rethink all of that. Despite the official result of the bout, Rahman exposed what those of us with any common sense should have realized last April: That no matter how much he weighs, James Toney is not and never will be a heavyweight.
Not without a little bit of help, anyway. The illegal kind.
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