| Peter “Escapes" With The Win 9-2-06 Samuel Peter (27-1) earned a tough, gritty 12-round decision victory against cagey former Middleweight James “Lights Out” Toney (69-5-3) Saturday night at Staples Center in Los Angeles. The fight was a 12- round Heavyweight elimination bout sanctioned by the WBC. Samuel Peter is now slated to take on Oleg Maskaev on a date to be determined. Toney won the first two rounds with more accurate punching and slick defense. Peter came back in the 3rd shortening his right hand and had Toney badly buzzed at the end of the round. Toney looked dazed as he returned to his stool in between rounds. Peter hurt Toney again in the 5th as he was more willing to stand in there and Toney obliged by retreating to the ropes, choosing to fight a defensive, tactical fight at times. The 6th round saw the most exciting action of the night as the fighters traded punches at the end of the round with Toney getting the better of the action and even appearing to have Peter dazed and bloodied, if not ready to go. The 7th and 8th rounds were even as each fighter took a bit of a tactical break while still doing the some good things. Peter was penalized a point in the 9th round for what was literally four rabbit punches to the back of Toney’s head. Steve Albert, Showtime commentator called them “double semi-rabbit punches.” The last three round saw Toney more effective early and Peter seeming to wear down Toney with big bombing right hands toward the end of the rounds. Despite Trainer Freddie Roach’s imploration of Toney to “put him down” in the 12th, he was unable to muster the necessary rally to make the round reminiscent of the Vassily Jirov fight of 2003 when Toney was able to do just that upon the urging of Roach. Despite the one point deduction in the 9th, the split decision scores read thus: 116-111 for Peter, 115- 112 for Toney and 116-111 for Peter. Sam Peter was gracious and excited to have earned the tough decision. Toney, never giving an edge, not wanting to lose his edge, gave nothing and even used most of his interview time to attack Larry Holmes, possibly in response to Holmes’ bitter remarks made during the ESPN2 Friday Night Fights telecast of September 1st. After the interviews had concluded a neat melee erupted in the ring as James Toney had some unfinished business to settle with some of Peter’s people. Wiser and saner heads prevailed as Peter’ s entourage was ordered out of the ring and Peter was escorted to the dressing room by a bevy of secret service agents and private security. The under-card saw Robert Guerrero (19-1-1) stop Eric Aiken (16-5) after 8th rounds when all parties involved had felt that Aiken had absorbed more than enough punishment. Guererro became the new IBF Featherweight champion with the victory. Diego Corrales, Lightweight champion, displayed a lack of class when he called Aiken a quitter and criticized him for violating the cardinal rule of boxing by refusing to continue to be bludgeoned by Guererro. It seems as if Corrales is interested in seeing men seriously hurt in the ring. I thought the cardinal rule of boxing was to “protect yourself at all times.” Interestingly, Corrales was absent as a commentator for the Heavyweight main event. |
