By Grigoriy Stangrit (Allboxing.ru)

Dmitry Pirog, the unbeaten WBO middleweight champion, expressed his own feelings about James Toney’s dominating decison loss to Denis Lebedev in Moscow, Russia. Lebedev won a lopsided twelve round unanimous decision to capture the WBA interim-cruiserweight title. Toney didn't win a single round on the scorecards and his reflexes weren't there.

“It’s a very sad moment, I think. It’s how stars are really shut down. “Lights out,” to repeat Toney’s words. I honestly thought he will get stopped in the last round. He was very close to being stopped and I thought his team would throw in the towel to make the stoppage official. But I want to give the legendary fighter some credit. He used his fascinating defensive skills to survive until the [final] bell. As for his inactivity, Toney was too slow. He was unable to follow Lebedev’s actions in the ring. Denis was way too quick for him. And he was also technically equipped enough to fight such a [boxer] as Toney. I felt [Kostya] Tszyu’s hand in this one. I think this is Kostya’s merit [as a trainer] that Lebedev looked so strong tonight. In this very fight I realized that Kostya is indeed a coach."

About his next fight: “We have reached some verbal agreements with [IBF champion] Daniel Geale and his team, and we are ready for this unification. I just hope that Showtime will also be interested in such a fight."