07.01.04 – After broadcasting more than 500 bouts during an 18-year span, SHOWTIME will present separate fights from dual continents for the first time in it’s history on Saturday, Feb. 7, 2004, beginning at 9 p.m. ET/PT. In the SHOWTIME CHAMPIONSHIP BOXING main event from Moscow, Russia, World Boxing Council (WBC)/International Boxing Federation (IBF) 140-Pound Champion and World Boxing Association (WBA) Super 140-pound Champion, Kostya Tszyu, will defend his titles in a highly anticipated rematch against former world champion and current IBF No. 1 140-pound contender, Sharmba Mitchell.
The 12-round co-feature from the Mandalay Bay Convention Center in Las Vegas, Nev., is an IBF and World Boxing Organization (WBO) title elimination bout between three-time world champion and current WBO No. 3 and IBF/WBC No. 8 heavyweight contender, James “Lights Out” Toney, and WBO No. 4, IBF No. 6 and WBC No. 11 contender Jameel “Big Time” McCline. The winner of “Does Size Matter?” between the 5-10, 220-pound Toney and 6-foot-7, 260-pound McCline becomes the No. 1 mandatory challenger in both the IBF (to champion Chris Byrd) and the WBO (to the winner of Wladimir Klitschko-Lamon Brewster).
JAMES TONEY (67-4-2, 43 KOs):
“I see this fight like that scene in the Rocky movie where he is hitting that slab of meet. That is what I will be doing against McCline. Hitting and treating him like a piece of meet. People think it is going to be difficult, but it is going to be an easy fight. I do not want to take anything away from McCline, but he has never faced anybody like me. This is a stepping stone fight for me on my way to winning the heavyweight world title.”
“I can already see the fear in McCline’s eyes. He is going to need a heart transplant before it is over. This is a great opponent for me to showcase my power and skills. It is going to be a good, bloody fight but there can only be one winner, and that winner is me.”
“I appreciate all the year-end honors I have been getting (USA Today and Ring magazine Fighter of the Year, etc.) and it makes me very happy. But I am just starting out.”
JAMEEL “BIG TIME” MCCLINE (30-3-3, 18 KOs):
“Toney is not going to beat me because I am too big, too fast and too good looking for him. Size does not matter. Styles do, and he cannot match up. He can talk all he wants about winning, but it is not going to happen. He says I am afraid. Well, he will see how afraid I am on Feb. 7.”
“I am like a kid in a candy store. That is how excited I am. When they told me that Toney wanted to fight me, I told them to hurry and make it happen before he changed his mind. I will prove that I am one of the best heavyweights in the world, and that I can beat a future Hall of Famer. Toney has more knockouts than I have fights, but that just tells me he has been around a long time. This fight is going to be a lot of fun.”
* Jameel “Big Time” McCline (left) and James “Lights Out” Toney pose at Tuesday’s press conference at Mandalay Bay in Las Vegas to formally announce their Feb. 7 “Does Size Matter?” heavyweight showdown on SHOWTIME (9 p.m. ET/PT). The winner between the 5-foot-10, 220-pound Toney and the 6-foot-6, 270-pound McCline becomes the No. 1 contender in the IBF and WBO. The 12-rounder is part of a SHOWTIME CHAMPIONSHIP BOXING dual-continent doubleheader. In a 12-round world title fight, Kostya Tszyu defends his 140-pound world titles against No. 1 ranked Sharmba Mitchell in Moscow, Russia, in the other half of the twinbill.