by James Slater: Tonight in Moscow, Russia, local hero Denis Lebedev administered a sad, prolonged beating to modern day legend James Toney. The much younger fighter picked up the interim World Boxing Association (WBA) cruiserweight title with a lopsided points win. Southpaw Lebedev was way too much for the shot-looking Toney. Final judges’ scores: 120-108, 120-108, 120-107.
Lebedev won every round, way too fast, sharp, strong and accurate was he for the 43-year-old. At times, tonight’s viewing was hard to watch as Toney was made to stumble, stagger and quite literally fall around the ring. Toney, looking as though he was treading treacle from the opening bell, had no balance, no sharpness and no timing at all. Bending over at the waist in his customary way of avoiding shots, “Lights Out” actually leaned into left hands to the head.
In the 2nd, Toney missed with a clumsy right hand and he stumbled all over the place in alarming fashion. This pattern continued all night, with Lebedev advancing, landing head shots, the odd body shot, and easily dominating matters. At times there was the occasional flash of defensive genius from Toney, but he never once landed a shot of significance on.
By the 8th, it was sad to watch, as Toney was wobbled to his boots by a left hand to the head. A right hook upstairs hurt Toney in the 9th, and he was taking the single worst beating of his great career. It really looked like Lebedev would get the stoppage, but the stubborn old warrior showed enough defiance to be able to see it through to the bell. But at what cost to his long term health?
Perhaps most disturbing of tonight’s events was the post-fight interview the badly beaten Toney gave. Asked how he was feeling, Toney replied he “felt good.” “Am I supposed to be feeling bad?,” Toney asked his Russian interviewer
“I’ll see him [Lebedev] again, I promise,” Toney said as he walked away.
The thought of Toney fighting at this level again is a frightening thought!
In other action on the card:
Alexander Bakhtin UD 10 Luis Melendez
Ismayl Sillakh TKO 4 Ali Ismailov
Vyacheslav Glazkov RTD 5 Daniil Peretyatko