The Nigerian Nightmare: Peter Decisions Toney Again, Earns Shot At Wbc Title

IT WAS SHOWN LIVE ON AIT

ME THINK HE PETER HIS GOOD, HE NEED TO WORK ON HIS JABS AND LEG WORK, AND SHOULD NO WHEN TO TAKE FULL ADVANTAGE, i.e KO

GOOD FOR NIGERIA, ME HOPE OUR GOVT WILL TAKE ADVANTAGE OF THIS VICTORY, I ALSO ADVICE PETERS TO WEAR GREEN WHITE GREEN NEXT TIME JUST LIKE BASH ALI ADVISED ON THE SHOW, GOOD FIGHT, GOOD FOR NIGERIA
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HOLLYWOOD, Fla. (AP) -- Samuel Peter never liked the idea of fighting James Toney again, insisting that he clearly beat him the first time around.

After what happened Saturday night in their second fight, Toney might not want another rematch.
Peter beat Toney for the second time in three months Saturday night, getting a unanimous decision in a WBC heavyweight elimination bout and perhaps the chance to fight Oleg Maskaev for a championship.

"You saw me tonight," Peter said. "I taunted him. I gave him the Muhammad Ali shuffle, and a little Floyd Mayweather, too. You saw what I did to him tonight. This was my best fight."

Peter (28-1, 22 knockouts) was ahead on two cards by scores of 118-110; he led the other card 119-108.


When it was over, the fighters seemed to disagree again on the outcome, with Toney raising his right fist in victory and Peter dancing around his half of the ring.

But deep down, Toney (69-6-3, 43 KOs) probably couldn't have believed that he would emerge the winner.

"First time, I knew I beat him," Peter said. "I won the first fight."

He took this one, too.When the fighters last met in Los Angeles on Sept. 2, both men claimed to have won convincingly. And observers, too, couldn't agree on the real winner.

Peter was the winner by 116-111 margins on two judges' cards that night, but Toney was ahead 115-112 on the third card -- and many ringside viewers also thought he won the bout. So the WBC intervened and, by a vote of its board of governors, ordered a rematch with the caveat that the winner would get a title shot.

With a few guys who know about winning championships -- Shaquille O'Neal, Bernard Hopkins, Ray "Boom Boom" Mancini and Hulk Hogan -- sitting ringside, Peter's approach was simple: He absorbed Toney's best shots, while keeping the former IBF middleweight, super middleweight and cruiserweight champion near the ropes as much as he could.

Peter had the best of the early going, including a knockdown 20 seconds into the second round -- the first time Toney had been knocked down since 1994, when Roy Jones Jr. did it in an easy win over the then-super middleweight.

"I slipped," Toney said. "I didn't go down. I feel I won the fight but it's all good. We'll fight another fight. ,  This guy is supposed to be a hell of a puncher, but he couldn't knock me out."

Toney, with his left eye closing, rallied a bit in the next two rounds. The fourth ended with Toney against the ropes, yet both fighters got in several shots in the closing seconds as photographers and others sitting immediately outside the ring shielded themselves from blasts of sweat being knocked off both men's bodies.

By the ninth round, knowing he was ahead on the cards, Peter began throwing jobs and seeming like he was willing to conserve energy and avoid any knockout tries that Toney could muster. And he was never in trouble the rest of the way.

"I'm not the best yet," Toney said. "The champions have the belts."

If all goes according to the WBC's plan, Peter may get a chance at the heavyweight belt held by Maskaev (34-5) -- who took the title by knocking Hasim Rahman out in August, then defended it in December with a unanimous decision over Peter Okhello.

And if the Peter-Maskaev fight actually happens, then there's probably a chance that the winner there could wind up in a unification bout against IBF champ Wladimir Klitschko -- the only person to put a loss on Peter's record -- sometime by year's end.

The 26-year-old Peter weighed 249; Toney, 38, weighed 234.

The last time Toney lost consecutive fights was more than a decade -- and 60 pounds -- ago. He was outclassed by Jones in November 1994 in their a super middleweight fight, then lost a close decision to Montell Griffin three months later in a light heavyweight matchup.

"I didn't even go home for Christmas," Toney said. "I trained hard. I will be back."

In the co-feature, Travis Simms (25-0, 19 KOs) stopped Jose Antonio Rivera (38-5-1) in the ninth round and reclaimed the WBA super welterweight belt. Simms, who hadn't fought since October 2004, was stripped of his title for failing to ever defend it, and Rivera won it last year.

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