Toney/Peter: Boxing’s Big Men Fight In WBC Eliminator Bout
By Bryan Amador: Former middleweight and Cruiserweight champion James Toney (69-5-1, 43 KO’s) fights meets up with Samuel Peter (27-1, 22 KO’s) on Janaury 6th, 2007, in an mandated WBC heavyweight eliminator bout, in which the winner gets the right to fight Oleg Maskaev, the WBC heavyweight champion. For those unaware, this is a rematch for them, ordered by the WBC because of their previous fight, a 12-round split decision victory for Samuel Peter, being so controversial. In point of fact, it appeared to most boxing critics that Toney had done enough to win the decision in the bout. However, perhaps the judges were swayed by the two occasions were Toney was briefly stunned by huge shots thrown by Peter in the early rounds of the fight.
Or, perhaps, the judges were turned off by the horrible shape that Toney entered the ring in, a blubbery 233 lbs. In fact, Toney looked in even worse shape than his last fight, in which he showed up at an all time high of 237 lbs for his fight with Hasim Rahman, which turned out to be a draw. Though, it appeared that Rahman had done more than enough to win the fight, in the opinion of many ring experts, including mine. Following that bout, it was thought that Toney would have learned his lesson about coming into fights out of shape. However, he obviously didn’t get the message, for Toney looked even worse against Peter, despite coming in five pounds lighter.
More than that, he was visibly slower with his punches, no longer having the speed that he possessed earlier in his career when he dominated in the middleweight division. Taken together, it seemed to indicate that Toney is on a downward slide as a fighter, and likely doesn’t have too much time left in boxing. For Peter, who doesn’t have excuses like age and weight to lean back on, it would seem to make a dramatic statement about his worth as a viable heavyweight contender.
Consequently, if Peter isn’t able to beat an old 38-year old war horse like Toney, how can he expect to be taken seriously in terms of being a future heavyweight champion. Already, Peter was badly exposed by Wladimir Klitschko, whom badly battered Peter for 12-rounds, often making him look like a crude amateur in comparison. While Peter’s people like to point out that he knocked Wladimir down several times, the problem with that line of thinking is that the punches, in fact, were all landed to the back of Wladimir’s head, thus making them illegal blows. If the referee, Randy Neumann, had been doing his job correctly, he would have penalized Peter early on in the fight and stopped this tactic.
Whatever the case, the winner of the Peter/Toney will have their work cut out for them against Oleg Maskaev, a well schooled fighter with lots of power. He matches up well against either of them, particularly Peter, who I feel he would easily outbox. I don’t expect Peter to get the chance, though, since Toney will likely beat him on January 6th, and win the fight to fight Maskaev.
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Posted December 26th, 2006 l 83 Views
