When James "Lights Out" Toney and Hasim "The Rock" Rahman meet for the heavyweight championship Saturday night in Atlantic City's Boardwalk Hall, they will make a startling contrast inside the ring. Toney, 5' 9" and 237 pounds, the living personification of a human bowling ball, will be towered over by a 6' 2", 238 pound behemoth in Rahman. But can the slick, old-school, 37-year-old Toney slay the giant and capture the linear heavyweight crown?

Toney, 69-4-2 (43), who squandered his best years by blowing up in weight but still managed to salvage his career with key wins over Vasilly Jirov at cruiserweight and Evander Holyfield and Dominick Guinn at heavyweight, has waited a long time to prove himself a true heavyweight champion. His victory over John Ruiz last year was nullified when he tested positive for steroids, but while Toney would probably school Ruiz any day of the week, the positive test proved the aging, injury-prone Toney's reliance on recuperative drugs. Toney hasn't looked ripped since his days as a middleweight (with the exception of the Jirov fight), but he has shown he can handle anyone who's put in front of him. However, the in shape Rahman may be more than he can bite off (no pun intended).

Rahman, 41-5-1 (33), unlike Toney, is still trying to secure some sort of boxing legacy; he has been largely a disappointment since knocking out Lennox Lewis in South Africa in 2001. He has been on a mini tear of late, fighting often against limited opposition, and winning. His impressive stoppage of Kali Meehan in second last fight put Rahman back on the map, but his boring decision over Monte Barrett didn't win him any new fans. Which version of "The Rock" will show up? Rahman's losses to David Tua, Oleg Maskaev and John Ruiz all had to do with a combination of weight and psychological issues; it appears judging from the weigh-in that he is in shape, but will he fight to his potential?

This is an extremely hard fight to pick a winner for. Few fighters can make their opponent miss from close distance the way Toney can. And few heavyweights have the hand speed and one-punch knockout power of Rahman. Rahman has the advantage when it comes to size, strentgh and endurance, but Toney takes the cake (no pun intended) in terms of sheer boxing skill. Toney's good, but at 37, he may not be able to hold off Rahman for twelve rounds and do enough offensively to secure his dream of becoming heavyweight champion of the world.

Prediction: Rahman by split decision