By Sammy Rozenberg
The battle between David and Goliath in Los Angeles' Staples Center, saw Goliath prevail as Samuel "The Nigerian Nightmare" Peter gave James "Lights Out" Toney his first loss in nine years by way of a split-decision. The scores were 116-111 for Peter, 115-112 for Toney and 116-111 for Peter.
The fight was close and the drama was heavy. There were plenty of close rounds as Toney would start fast in each round with his jab, which saw hard right hands follow behind them. Peter would use his power to take over the second half of each round.
Neither man was down, but Peter did manage to land several clean shots on Toney, some of them appeared to stun Toney on more than one occasion. The chin of Toney should be commended for a man that started in the middleweight division and took punches on the chin from arguably the hardest punching heavyweight in the sport.
The scores were bit wide for Peter, considering that a point was deducted for punching Toney behind the head. After the scores were read, a skirmish broke out in the ring as Toney and ex-manager, now Peter's manager, Ivailo Gotzev, began to argue in the ring over the scoring.
This may have been the last hurrah for Toney with respect to landing a title shot, now 38-years-old, a former champion at 160, 168 and 190, but lost a fight after going unbeaten in his last 16 over nine years. Sam Peter is now positioned for a crack at a major world title.
It was ruled a few weeks ago by the World Boxing Council, that the winner would receive a mandatory title shot at the winner of last month's rematch between Hasim Rahman and Oleg Maskaev. Maskaev lifted the WBC strap by way of 12th round knockout. Going by the WBC, Maskaev must make his first defense of the title against Peter.
The only way Maskaev does not face Peter in his very next bout is if he vacates his title or he stages a non-title bout. If Maskaev vacates the title, Peter would face the highest rated contender, and that would probably be Sinan Samil Sam, since the third ranked contender Calvin Brock is facing Wladimir Klitschko for the IBF heavyweight title on November 11 in Madison Square Garden.
There could always be a bypass of the WBC title if another champion steps up to the plate, but that would not be in the immediate future. Nikolai Valuev is defending his WBA heavyweight title against Monte Barrett in October, both WBO heavyweight champion Sergei Liakhovich and IBF champion Wladimir Klitschko are due to battle on separate dates in November.
On the undercard,
Robert "The Ghost" Guerrero (19-1-1, 12 KOs) captured the IBF featherweight title from Eric Aiken (16-5, 12 KOs) by way of an eighth round TKO. After an early back and forth battle, Guerrero took over the fight with hard punches to the body that broke Aiken down as the fight played out. After the eight round, the corner of Aiken felt their fighter had enough and the fight was stopped.
Super middleweight Anthony Dirrell (10-0, 9 KOs) picked up a 6 round decision over Billy Thompson (7-6, 3 KOs). The scores were 60-54 on all three cards, all for Dirrell.
Heavyweight Travis Walker (21-1, 17 KOs) stopped John Clark (12-8-1, 7 KOs). within two rounds.
Female lightweights Jessica Rakoczy (23-2) and Belinda Laracuente (22-14-3) fought to a three-round no-contest, after clash of heads opened up a deep cut on Rakoczy.
