TONEY TAKING ON A HEAVY TASK.

Byline: ROBERT MORALES Boxing

James ``Lights Out'' Toney was a super-middleweight champion when, in 1994, he began openly discussing how one day he wanted to fight for the heavyweight championship of the world.

It seemed unlikely. He started his professional career in 1988 as a middleweight. Six years later, he had moved up only one weight class, to super middleweight.

Lo and behold, here Toney is, just five days away from challenging John Ruiz for his World Boxing Association heavyweight championship. They will square off Saturday at Madison Square Garden in New York.

``I have always said that from Day One,'' Toney said of fighting for the heavyweight championship. ``I am excited and ready to go. It is good to fight the best heavyweight out there, which is John Ruiz.

``The reason I say he is the best is because he is the only one with the guts to step up and fight me.''

If Toney were to defeat Ruiz, he would become only the third fighter in history to have held middleweight and heavyweight championships - Bob Fitzsimmons and Roy Jones Jr. are the others.

``I think it would be a great achievement,'' said Toney, of Los Angeles via Ann Arbor, Mich. ``I am not fighting an over-the-hill champion to do it. He is willing to fight me, and he is the best heavyweight out there right now. And I'm going to do it in style.''

That is twice now that Toney has referred to Ruiz as the ``best heavyweight out there.'' Part of a fighter's job is to help promote an event. If he doesn't, then promoters aren't as quick to use that fighter again. Thus, the compliments.

The bottom line is, the heavyweight division is in a pathetic state. The other champions are Lamon Brewster (World Boxing Organization), Chris Byrd (International Boxing Federation) and Vitali Klitschko (World Boxing Council).

Make no mistake, Toney is one of the most talented fighters to grace this sport over the past 15 years or so. However, there is no better time for someone like Toney to come and take away what little thunder exists in the division.

Jones easily beat Ruiz via unanimous decision in March 2003 to become the second former middleweight champion to win a heavyweight belt.

Toney (68-4-2, 43 KOs) makes no apologies for the division, but he vows to make it better.

``My thing is just that things are going to come up because I am in the division right now,'' said Toney, who has won titles in the middleweight, super middleweight and cruiserweight divisions. ``It is in the state it is because all the good fighters do not want to fight each other.

``The promoters put their fighters in with a safe opponent. Everything will blow over eventually.''

Unfortunately, the best could fight the best and the division would still be lacking. As good as Toney is, he is 36 and has only a few good years left.

As for Ruiz (41-5-1, 28 KO's), he can't figure out why experts refuse to give him any respect. If he really wants to know, it's because of his boring, jab-and-grab style that makes his fights excruciating to sit through. Other than that, he is just a joy to watch.

``Sometimes you have to work hard for the respect, but I have been working very hard and fighting top-notch fighters,'' said Ruiz, of Chelsea, Mass. ``I am fighting guys that they (experts) predicted to be the next heavyweight champion.

``I beat them, and then they just change their whole outlook on what they were thinking of this other guy. I just get the backlash of people who would rather put me down than give me credit.''

There really aren't any big feathers in Ruiz's cap. He fought Evander Holyfield three times, but Holyfield was already 37 the first time; he was 39 in their third fight. Each fighter earned a win and there was a draw.

Ruiz, 33, also has beaten Kirk Johnson, Hasim Rahman, Fres Oquendo and Andrew Golota, though many thought Golota defeated Ruiz when they fought last November at Madison Square Garden. Ruiz was knocked down twice in the second round; he also lost a point for hitting after the break.

--Marquez sitting pretty: Juan Manuel Marquez, of Mexico, will defend his WBA and IBF featherweight titles May 7 against Victor Polo on the undercard of the lightweight title unification fight between Jose Luis Castillo and Diego Corrales.

If Marquez wins, he could be sitting prettier than ever thanks to current litigation between Manny Pacquiao, Pacquiao's new manager, Shelly Finkel, and his promoter, Murad Muhammad.

According to Marquez's promoter, Bob Arum, that court battle could pave the way for Marquez to fight on the undercard of a Sept. 10 schedule that will be headlined by countryman Erik Morales, who would make a defense of his WBC super featherweight belt.

HBO, which will televise the card at a site to be determined, was hopeful of having Pacquiao fight that night with the idea that, should both win, Morales and Pacquiao would fight a rematch of their March 19 fight, won by Morales.

But because Pacquaio and Finkel are trying to break ties with Muhammad, Pacquiao may not be able to fight for some time.

Unless there is a quick change in current events, all of this means that Marquez and Morales could end up fighting each other in December in what would be a highly anticipated fight. Marquez would move up in weight.

``If they both win,'' Arum said of Marquez and Morales, whose opponents are to be determined, ``then we would match them in a very attractive pay-per-view card in December. There is a whole group of people that think that Marquez is the best of any of them in the featherweight and super featherweight divisions.''

Marquez first must get by Polo, and that won't be easy.

--Margarito next for Mosley? Arum also promotes WBO welterweight champion Antonio Margarito, who scored a devastating fifth-round technical knockout of Kermit Cintron in the main event Saturday at Caesars Palace in Las Vegas.

Afterward, Margarito said he next wanted to fight either Oscar De La Hoya or ``Sugar'' Shane Mosley, who defeated David Estrada in a welterweight bout Saturday. Arum said he is doubtful a deal could be made with De La Hoya, but that Mosley's camp had already approached him about challenging Margarito.

``The fight that I think can be made is the Mosley fight,'' Arum said Sunday. ``I don't believe Oscar is a possibility because Richard Schaefer (CEO of De La Hoya's Golden Boy Promotions) has told me a number of times that Oscar would refuse to fight Margarito. Why, I don't know.

``Margarito now has become a very hot property. We believed he was going to win (Saturday), but we anticipated a very hard fight. And it wasn't a hard fight. He handled him (Cintron) very easily.''

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Photo:

James Toney, right, who beat Evander Holyfield in 2003, fights John Ruiz in a heavyweight title bout Saturday.

Jed Jacobsohn/Getty Images

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