Toney-Ruiz heavyweight fight draws little fanfare

NEW YORK – Their fight is an orphan. So James Toney and John Ruiz did what boxers do to stir things up. Push a little, shove a little and shout at each other and their trainers.

With the help, of course, of Don King, who had the appropriate line to end Tuesday’s promotional news conference/ faux altercation:

“We ain’t gonna have a fight tonight for free.”

The actual fight will take place April 30 at Madison Square Garden when Ruiz, the WBA heavyweight champion, defends his title against Toney, who has held middleweight, super middleweight and cruiserweight titles.

It was cobbled together to replace Vitali Klitschko’s WBC heavyweight title defense against Hasim Rahman, which was supposed to be held that night but was called off because Klitschko pulled a thigh muscle.

The Garden agreed to take the fight on the cheap – so little money is on the table that it is being shown on HBO without pay-per-view, almost unheard of for a heavyweight “championship.”

King, naturally, let everyone know that.

“These guys aren’t making any money for this,” he said. “It’s for the honor of being able to start unifying the heavyweight title.”

The shoving came after a tape summarizing all the names, faces and fights that King has been involved with, and speeches from all involved.

It came when Toney and Ruiz’s trainer, Norman Stone, exchanged words across the podium, and the fighter began approaching Stone. Stone isn’t new at this – on Nov. 13, when Ruiz beat Andrew Golota, he threw a punch at Golota’s trainer and then was ejected for throwing tape at the referee.

King, naturally, played the referee, getting himself between the two. The cameras moved front-and center, naturally, but no one even got close to injury before Ron Scott Stevens, New York’s boxing commissioner, stepped up and said such doings would not be tolerated in his state.

Things calmed down, Stone yelled across at Toney and King returned to pump up the fight, which demonstrates the low esteem to which the heavyweight division has fallen.

The 36-year-old Toney, who is listed at 5-foot-9 and 227 pounds, is three years’ younger, 5 inches shorter and almost 30 pounds lighter than Ruiz.