Wlad vs Rahman & Thompson vs James Toney might end their carreers...

Rahman has a puncher's chance against Klitschko, but even that is a small one. He is slow as **** these days to the degree you can see his punches coming from a mile. His jab is still pretty decent, but the right hand and his footwork slowed down almost to a standstill. It would be a good "stay-warm" fight for Wlad if Valuev is unavailable (he's scheduled to fight a Don King recycled HW in december?), but if Rahman loses, it's probably the end of his career. This analysis is pretty much true for Maskaev as well, although his career is over already you could say.


As for James Toney vs Tony Thompson.... i see that as one of the worst stylistic matchups for the former middleweight. The only fights worse is one with either Klitschko or with Valuev. Toney never beat a decent fighter over 6'2 as far as i can remember and at 5'9", he'll have huge trouble effectively reaching Thompson who is 6'6". Not that that tells the entire story of course, but Thompson is a hard worker with a punch output usually over 50 punches a round; they're not bombs he's throwing, but it's hard to phantom Toney winning rounds while throwing little more than half that, and having to punch way up all the time. Unless Wlad ruined him, i think Thompson will win a rather comfortable decision and set Toney back even further, perhaps into retirement although i think he's too stubborn to retire.

Maskaev, Rahman, Brewster or even Tua (if he finally takes a big fight..) would be much more winnable fights for Toney, over old but "name" fighters.