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Judges
Shock Toney in LA!
Ghost Becomes World Champion!
By: Ralph Rimpell @ringside
September 4, 2006
On Saturday night at the Staples Center in
LA, James "lights out" Toney faced off against Samuel "the Nigerian
nightmare" in a twelve round WBC heavyweight elimination bout for the
right to face newly crowned WBC heavyweight champion Oleg Maskev.
The start of round one was very tactical with both fighters feeling one
another out. Peter was looking to land the big punch, while Toney
countered and outboxed Peter beautifully. More of the same action was
seen in round two. By the end of the third round, Peter was able to
close the gap by connecting with a right hand and appeared to hurt
Toney. By the fifth round it was clear that Toney was landing the more
accurate punches, while Peter landed the more bigger punches even though
most of his punches missed. Those that landed hit Toney on the back of
the head. In the ninth round, perhaps due to frustration, Peter hit
Toney with a double punch to both of Toney's ears while he was against
the ropes and was deducted a point by the referee. In rounds nine and
ten, Toney was content to counter effectively off the ropes.
In rounds eleven through twelve, Toney came out boxing and used his jab
to pick his punches nicely. It was clear that Toney had outboxed Peter
having won, according to HotboxingNews, nine of the twelve rounds or
117-110. Official Scores were split 115-112 for Toney, 116-111 twice for
Peter. The fans voiced there disagreement with "boos." Most boxing
writers scored the fight for Toney.
At the post fight press conference, Toney's Promoter Dan Goossen stated,
I thought our fighter was ahead. It may have been close, but I thought
James won the fight. Were going to see what can be done. If we can
protest the decision. I would rather see if we can settle this man to
man by getting a rematch." Peter's Promoter Dino Duva replied, " After
Samuel wins the WBC title, then will talk rematch." When asked if Toney
was the best fighter he had faced thus far in is professional career,
Peter responded, "James Toney is the best fighter, yes." After the Duva
and Peter left, Toney attended the press conference surprisingly very
calm. He expressed his belief that he had one the fight. He accused
Peter of being a dirty fighter who hit him with a lot of punches to the
back of the head, which was the only way Peter was able to hurt him. He
attributed this controversial loss to politics by saying," they don't
want to see me on top," He then put his promoters on the spot by saying,
" I'm calling out Don King and Dan Goossen to do something and get this
decision changed." Toney stated he would except an immediate rematch.
When Toney's Promoter, Goossen, was asked if he and Don King could not
secure an immediate rematch with Peter what would they do, He said he
would look to the other World champions to secure a fight for Toney.
Peter improved his record to 27-1, 22 KO's, while Toney drops to
69-5-3,1 ND, 43 KO's.
On the undercard Robert "the Ghost" Guerrero 19-1-1,11KO's challenged
Eric "mighty mouse" Aiken 16-5, 12 KO's for his IBF featherweight
championship. At the sound of the first bell, Guerrero established the
tempo of the fight by swarming Aiken with a barrage of punches. Aiken
did his best to hold off his opponent, but was simply out worked by
Guerrero. In the second round Guerrero picked up where he left off.
Aiken was determined to hold on to his championship and refused to back
down even though it was Guerrero that was getting the better of the
exchanges. By the third round it seem that Aiken hurt Guerrero. Guerrero
appeared to recover and come back to also hurt Aiken. In the fifth
round, Aiken was able to score effectively by using his jab and keep
Guerrero at the end of his punches. More toe toe action in rounds six
through eight. Aiken decided not to come out for the start of the ninth.
The fight was stopped by the referee at the request of Aiken's corner.
At the post fight press conference, Guerrero was asked who he wanted to
fight next. He responded, "I will leave that up to my management team.
"Shelly Finkel stated, " Robert will be an active champion. He won't be
a fighter who does not fight if he is unable to get the money he is
looking for. He will get some rest and will be back in November." When
asked how it felt to be champion, Guerrero happily replied, "It hasn't
sunk in, maybe in a few hours I'll know."
In a six round heavyweight fight, Mike Marrone improved his record to
15-0, 12 KO's after a dominant performance over the capable Ralph West
16-9-1, 13 KO's with an exciting TKO in the third round.
Anthony Dirrell pitched a shut out against Billy Thompson in a six round
super middleweight bout. He resembled former pound for pound king Roy
Jones the way he outboxed Thompson. Dirrell improved to 10-0, 9 KO's
while Thompson dropped to 7-6, 3KO's.
Heavyweight Travis Walker scored an impressive TKO over John Clark in
second round of a scheduled eight round fight. Walker improves his
record to 21-0,17 KO's, while Clark falls to 12-8-1, 7 KO's.
In what was shaping up to be a very competitive womens fight in the
lightweight division between Jessica Rakoczy 23-2, 8 KO's and Belinda
Laracuente 22-13-3, 9KO's ended up being declared a no contest when
Laracuente sustained a cut to her left eye due to a head butt in the
third round.
Contact: Rluvsboxing@aol.com
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