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Rahman & Toney Brawl In
Cancun Hotel Lobby
Members of the media who wish to write about the brawl that
broke out between Hasim Rahman and James Toney on Monday
evening in Cancun, Mexico, can rely on this first-person
account provided to Don King Productions by World Boxing
Council Executive Secretary Mauricio Sulaiman:
A brawl broke out between World Boxing Council heavyweight
champion Hasim "The Rock" Rahman and WBC mandatory
challenger James "Lights Out" Toney Monday night at the Le
Meridien Cancun Resort & Spa in Mexico.
Rahman and Toney were joining other boxing luminaries and
members of the media attending a welcoming cocktail party
for the WBC's "Crowning of the Champions" event set for
Tuesday afternoon. Toney was being interviewed by Television
Azteca in the hotel lobby with many members of the media
surrounding him. He was in the process of explaining that he
had made a spur-of-the-moment decision after arriving in
Cancun yesterday to marry his fiancée Angie at the hotel's
pool on Tuesday morning.
Rahman stumbled across his mandatory challenger when he
arrived in the hotel lobby at about 6:15 p.m. while the
television interview was taking place.
The bliss of Toney's pending nuptials was interrupted when
he realized Rahman has just arrived. After the two
prizefighters made eye contact, a war of words erupted. The
verbal assaults escalated into a full-fledged brawl soon
thereafter that took many people and over 15 minutes to
quell while hotel guests and staff members looked on in
stunned disbelief.
Unannounced fisticuffs are a rare occurrence at this posh
resort. Ironically, this world famous tropical paradise is
just now recovering from blows sustained by Hurricane Wilma.
World Boxing Council Executive Secretary Mauricio Sulaiman
confirmed that neither boxer sustained serious injury.
Rahman, Toney, former WBC heavyweight champion Vitali
Klitschko, boxer Oleg Maskaev, promoter Don King, boxing
manager Carl King, promoter Dan Goossen, Todd duBoef from
Top Rank, WBC President Jose Sulaiman, his son Mauricio,
Rahman's manager Steve Nelson, and many others have made the
holiday trek to be present for the coronation of Rahman as
the WBC heavyweight champion and Klitschko as champion
emeritus.
Just imagine what a delight it will be for the lucky WBC
official who receives the assignment of explaining what
happened to the hotel's general manager on Tuesday morning
as the circus that is world championship boxing makes
another stop on the globe.
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