Got Beef? Cristobal Arreola and James Toney Headlining Televised Bouts

You might say they put the "heavy" in heavyweight.

Two men who symbolize the current state of the American heavyweight are set to make their returns to the ring, and to American television, after extended absences.

Cristobal "The Nightmare" Arreola and James "Lights Out" Toney have, sadly, become known more for their issues with eating and their lack of dedication than for their fighting abilities.

It's hard to dislike Arreola (29-2-0), who enters the ring against Joey Abell (27-4-0) this week on ESPN's Friday Night Fights. 

He often comes across like an overgrown kid, well-meaning and funny, so that even when he's tossing F-bombs around on live television or crying in the ring after a humiliating loss, you want to make excuses for him.

However, Arreola, 29, has relied on his winning personality to help him evade his responsibilities for too long now.

From his disastrous WBC title fight with Vitali Klitschko onwards to his last mediocre outing against Manuel Quezada, the talented but slothful Arreola has repeatedly assured gullible media types before each bout that yes, this time he is working hard, this time he isn't blowing off training, this time he isn't chowing down on copious amounts of burritos and beer while preparing for a fight.

Only to show up each time looking worse than the last, his career in a downward spiral.

And Arreola is at it again this time, feeding a similar story about his newfound discipline to Sports Illustrated. 

"I want to show everybody that I'm not just a great fighter but that I'm becoming a man and being accountable for everything," he says.

"I want to make sure this year I put a big dent on the boxing world."

Let's hope so.

A dedicated Arreola would be a great thing for heavyweight boxing in America.

But his window of opportunity is quickly closing.

For Toney, that window probably slammed shut some time ago (around the second fight with Samuel Peter is a good guess).

Toney returns to the boxing ring February 24, defending his lightly regarded IBA Heavyweight Championship against "Dangerous" Damon Reed (45-14, 32 KOs) in a Fox Sports televised 12-round main event.

Toney's last public appearance as a fighter, you may remember, came in a farcical UFC event in Boston, where he was decimated by aging grappler Randy Couture, embarrassing the sport of boxing at a time when it can least afford such negative publicity.

After assuring the world that he was training like a madman for the event, Toney showed up looking like he had done nothing more than take an occasional walk to Dunkin' Donuts.

There is little doubt that what Toney should be doing is sitting back in an easy chair, not climbing back into a boxing ring, a place he hasn't been since 2009.

His speech patterns have become garbled in recent years to the point where one often needs subtitles to understand the man.

Toney refused to heed his ex-trainer Freddie Roach's advice to retire after his last fight with Peter, and Toney fired Roach rather than listen to him.

In his prime, of course, Toney was a helluva fighter, employing old-school tactics like the shoulder roll to great effect.

But that prime occurred in lighter weight divisions, some time ago.

Toney, 42, is now but a mere shell of his former self.

As a heavyweight, Toney has never really made a great impression (though this writer thought he defeated Peter in their first fight).

And the thought of him ever taking punishment from the likes of the Klitschko brothers should be enough to make anyone who still reveres the man shudder.

After having stayed out of view for a while after his MMA disaster, Lights Out will no doubt have plenty to say in the lead-up to this latest fight, entertaining grinning media types with his propensity for outrageous trash talk.

But the talk has become not only garbled, but hollow.

Time to turn out the lights, James.