BOXING: TONEY CAN STILL LIGHT UP A ROOM.

Byline: ROBERT MORALES Boxing

Hasim Rahman and Chris Byrd could walk down Madison Avenue in New York City today, and according to James ``Lights Out'' Toney, people ``wouldn't even know Chris Byrd or Hasim Rahman from the next man.''

If it were Toney, however, things would be different.

``If I walked down Madison Avenue right now, everybody would know who I am, because of the way I dress and my swagger is all that,'' said Toney, who will challenge Rahman for his World Boxing Council heavyweight belt Saturday in Atlantic City. HBO will televise.

Byrd, the International Boxing Federation heavyweight champion, is an equally sharp dresser, but he has no swagger.

Rahman, well, he had some swagger as a direct result of knocking out Lennox Lewis in the fifth round in April 2001. But Lewis smacked it right back out of Rahman when he knocked him out with a tremendous 1-2 combination in the fourth round seven months later.

``You saw what happened when Lennox came ready, he dropped a sleeping pill on him,'' Toney said.

Yes, Toney is a big talker. And he's always backed it up. Toney, 37, is 69-4-2 with 43 knockouts. He has won world championships in the middleweight, super middleweight and cruiserweight divisions, even though he stands just 5-foot-9.

Toney had won the World Boxing Association heavyweight title last April 30 with a unanimous decision over John Ruiz, but the fight was later ruled a no-contest when Toney tested positive for steroids. The belt was returned to Ruiz, who later lost it to Russian Nicolay Valuev.

Toney, of Los Angeles via Ann Arbor, Mich., is 10-1-1 in world title fights, not including the fight with Ruiz. This is good. But Toney is more than a good fighter. He is a special fighter. He has the ability to register vicious knockouts, yet he also is one of the best defensive fighters in recent times.

And Toney works his defense with sheer artistry, not by running. He rolls his shoulders. When he moves his head, it is usually enough to reduce a punch to a graze.

Those are just the tangibles. Toney is not only intelligent, he is very patient.

That's what makes Toney such a draw. He is downright mean to his opponent and to many reporters when he's preparing for a fight.

``You guys talk about being prim and proper, but that's not me,'' Toney said to reporters last week. ``I don't kiss nobody's (butt). I don't kiss reporters(' butts).''

But once he's in the ring, he's cool.

He and Rahman engaged each other in a little push, shove and slap fight recently during a promotional event in Cancun, Mexico. Although Toney has since gone on record as saying he is going to make Rahman pay for that, Rahman seems much more perturbed about the whole thing.

``Yeah, I don't like him,'' Rahman said. ``See, I don't like people who just target everybody. If you got a problem with somebody, I can respect that. If you don't like me for whatever reason, that's fine.

``But you just don't go (off) on everybody. This man goes (off) on everybody. He thinks it's a forgone conclusion that he's going to win every fight. He is just this very, very, very cocky, arrogant person and you know, I can't respect that.''

It almost sounds, however, like Rahman might fear Toney. It has to be disconcerting to him to know that Toney has been mouthing off for all 17 years of his professional career, yet no one has ever been able to really hurt him in the ring.

James ``Lights Out'' Toney could walk down Madison Avenue today and he would be recognized much more than Rahman and Byrd. Deservedly so. And the only way Rahman can become recognizable in his own right would be to do what no one has yet been able to do - shut Toney's mouth.

``He is real disrespectful and I take that personally,'' Rahman said. ``So I am going to deal with that (Saturday) and show him he can't back it up.''

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