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Toney Wants Chris Byrd Next
by Peter Mooney (April 27, 2003)
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MASHANTUCKET, Conn. — James "Lights Out" Toney wrestled the IBF cruiserweight title from Vassiliy Jirov last night with a unanimous decision victory and immediately afterward he hyped a potential match with IBF heavyweight titlist Chris Byrd, who was on hand at the fight as well as the post-fight press conference at Foxwoods Resort Casino.
Toney scored a dramatic knockdown of Jirov in the closing seconds of the twelfth and final round, even though he didn’t need it in the estimation of the three judges who scored the fight 116-111 and 117-109 twice. Now, Toney (66-4-2, 42 KOs) claims he wants Byrd.
"Chris Byrd better watch out," Toney said.
Later during the press conference, Byrd was invited up to the podium to respond.
"You see how slick James is," Byrd said. "Slick guy. But I’m the slickest one of them all."
The idea behind the potential match up is that Byrd would move down to 190 to face Toney. A rematch with Jirov is another possibility for Toney because despite the rather lopsided tallies of the judges the champion gave the challenger a run for his money.
Three different judges may have scored the fight much closer, as Jirov (31-1, 27 KOs) was always the aggressor and was competitive throughout the fight. In fact, Jirov, who fought at a remarkable pace in almost every round, dictated the action through the first three rounds. Overall, Jirov would throw an astounding 1032 punches during the fight.
Asked if he thought he needed a knockout to win, Toney said, "You never know in boxing."
But the judges were swayed by Toney’s greater accuracy and harder, cleaner punches. While Jirov only landed 243 punches, Toney landed 380, including 38 of 75 power punches in the final round.
Jirov didn’t help his cause by repeatedly delivering low blows for which he was warned and then penalized in the eighth round when referee Steve Smoger deducted one point. It was a questionable call although the blow on which Smoger issued the warning was clearly below the belt.
Much of the bout was fought on the ropes, some of the time because Jirov forced Toney there and some of the time because Toney lured Jirov there. Although Toney fought best by staying in the center of the ring and keeping distance between himself and Jirov, he also proved he could effectively counter from the ropes which was what he chose to do more often than not. Moreover, despite the tremendous pressure Jirov applied to Toney, Toney never appeared in trouble.
Instead, Jirov’s pace caused him to tire down the stretch and enabled Toney to begin catching him with solid combination in the last minute of the final round. After hurting Jirov and battering him around the ring, Toney knocked the champion down with a right-left-right combination. Jirov was able to rise with less than ten seconds left in the fight and then the bout went to the scorecards.
In the co-feature, Antonio Tarver knocked down Montell Griffin in the closing seconds of both the first and final round on his way to a unanimous decision victory. With the victory, Tarver (21-1, 17 KOs) claimed the two vacant light heavyweight belts surrendered by Roy Jones Jr. when he moved up to heavyweight. Not only did Tarver win a unanimous decision, but he also pitched a shutout as all three judges gave every round to the winner and scored the fight 120-106.
"I just want to thank my trainer, Buddy McGirt, who made sure I kept my foot to the pedal. I wanted to take a round off," Tarver joked. "But he wouldn’t let me."
Near the end of round one, Tarver trapped Griffin (44-4, 29 KOs) in a corner and knocked him down with a left and a chopping right on top of the head. Griffin continued to wobble after he arose, but the bell soon chimed to end the round.
"After he hit me on top of the head like that, I had trouble getting going," Griffin said. "But I can’t take anything away from him. He fought a great fight."
Tarver picked up where he left off in round two and tried to seize his opportunity and end the fight early, but Griffin withstood his onslaught and Tarver eventually punched himself out.
Griffin’s effort improved over the next few rounds, but Tarver still outjabbed his opponent and beat him to the punch. As Griffin fell further and further behind on the scorecards, he started to try to catch Tarver with one big shot that would turn the fight around, and he did occasionally land solid left hooks that had the crowd gasping. But he was never able to hurt the taller, faster fighter.
Tarver, well aware that he had built a sizable lead, cruised the through the middle rounds, focusing on his jab and advancing cautiously. Griffin meanwhile plodded forward, unable to sustain an attack.
Griffin also had to deal with swelling and a cut around his right eye that started to bother him in round six. At the advice of referee Michael Ortega, the ringside physician examined the damage three times during the course of the fight.
"I though the fight should have been stopped," the new champion said. "It was a severe cut and he was bleeding badly."
Perhaps it was the swelling or the cut that caused Griffin to miss the straight left Tarver, a southpaw, threw in the last round. It caught Griffin square on the chin and dropped him to the seat of his pants. Although Griffin would bravely rise from that fall, only the final bell would prevent him from getting knocked out or stopped as he was in serious trouble after the knockdown.
On the undercard, Yuri Foreman remained undefeated (10-0, 6 KOs) with an impressive second round technical knockout over Charles Clark (14-16-1, 5 KOs). After a competitive first round, Foreman knocked Clark down with a chopping right early in the second round. After Clark got up, Foreman proceeded with a masterful finish, by applying immense pressure and going to both the head and the body. The fight was stopped at 1:40 of the round.
Duncan Dokiwari of Nigeria upped his record to 22-1 (19 KOs) by knocking out fellow heavyweight Carlton Johnson at 2:40 of round 3. A big left-right combination sent Johnson to the canvas.
Brooklyn native Sechew Powell continued his rise as a junior middleweight prospect with a unanimous decision victory over Jamal Harris of Los Angeles. Powell (8-0, 5 KOs) used a popping jab and effective counter-punching to control the action and win every round on every scorecard. A thudding left hook by Powell at the end of the last round provided the exclamation point.
Light heavyweight Aneudi Santos beat up and cut up the always game and iron-chinned Danny Shehan in the first match of the evening. Due to a cut, the fight was stopped at :49 of the fifth round and Santos remains undefeated at 8-0 with 5 knockouts.
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