Boxing-Heavyweight picture still blurry after Rahman draw

ATLANTIC CITY, New Jersey, Mar 19 (Reuters) The title clash between Hasim ''The Rock'' Rahman and James Toney yesterday was full of in-fighting, clutching and grabbing, yet short on excitement and substance.

In other words, it was more of the same in the heavyweight division.

Rahman and fellow-American challenger Toney fought to a draw that allowed Rahman to retain the World Boxing Council heavyweight crown handed to him after the retirement of Vitali Klitschko, who had cancelled four fight dates against the Baltimore native because of injury.

The fighters had vowed their WBC tilt would produce a dynamic champion who would bring clarity to the top of a muddled division that includes WBA champion Nikolai Valuev, IBF title holder Chris Byrd and WBO champ Lamon Brewster.

Instead it did not even produce a winner.

Even the draw was messy. Two of the judges scored the tussle 114-114, while the third judge had it 117-111 in favour of Rahman, technically making it a majority draw.

The action was livelier in the post-fight news conference when talk swung around to a possible Rahman-Toney rematch, which the fighters and their promoters seemed to favour.

Promoter Dennis Rappaport jumped up from the audience waving papers and introduced another name to the dubious mix, shouting out that his fighter, Oleg Maskaev of Kazakhstan, was guaranteed the next crack at the WBC title.

BOXING LOGIC Maskaev won a WBC title eliminator last November in Hamburg, Germany, against Sinan Samil Sam making him the next mandatory challenger for the crown.

''I have with me letters from the WBC indicating without exception that they must fight him,'' Rappaport said about Maskaev, who lives in the New York borough of Staten Island.

''There will be no exceptions. I promise you one thing. If anyone tries to violate the rights of Oleg Maskaev there will be an immediate injunction. We are going to be fighting Rahman next or there won't be any fight.'' Symptomatic of the heavyweight malaise was the fact that the most magical names were the golden promoters at work.

Rappaport, once manager of Great White Hope Gerry Cooney, was yelling up at a podium featuring Bob Arum, the one-time promoter of Muhammad Ali and George Foreman, and Mike Tyson's former wheeler-dealer Don King, who had a piece of Toney's purse for the fight due to a complicated arrangement.

In classic boxing logic, Toney's formal promoter, Dan Goossen, presented his case for a rematch against Rahman.

''It was mandated for the winner of this fight to fight Oleg Maskaev but there was no winner,'' Goossen told Reuters. ''This was a draw. We need to find a definite conclusion of a winner and a loser.

''As far as I'm concerned it should be immediately mandated for a rematch.

''We're not here to hurt Oleg Maskaev, but on the other hand we have to come to a conclusion of this fight.'' REUTERS DH PM1538