With four first names between two guys, the headliner bout sounded like four guys were fighting in the main event. When the night was over, it was about as exciting as watching four guys fight!The Mighty-Moe personally watched this bout unfold at the Los Angeles Staples Center. When I came back home, I watched it again on Showtime just to hear what the commentary was like. Ooh, whadda scrap! The only mar on this beautiful event was the ugly decision.
Sitting ringside, the consensus was that James “Lights Out” Toney clearly won the fight. At the end of the event, it was Toney’s name that the crowd was cheering.
Having said that, when I watched the televised version of the same event and came away with the same conclusion -- with the exception that I attempted to score the fight while sitting infront of my TV.
Attempting to give Peter the benefit of the doubt, I scored the fight five rounds a piece with two rounds even. The two rounds I scored even I would have scored for Toney, but since Peter was active, I scored them even. With that, lets say the judges gave those two rounds to Peter, with the one point deduction for rabbit punching to the back of Toney’s head, that means that Peter walks away with a one point margin on the decision.
The scores on two of the judge’s scorecards were 111-116 for Peter. That means they only gave Toney three rounds in the entire fight. This is not only a travesty of boxing, but it’s death Nell. Boxing cannot survive decisions like this.
The Might-Moe can always tell a bought-off judge because they come in pairs. You see: you don’t have to buy all three judges, only two. When the decision read, 111-116 for Peter, then 115-112 for Toney, I knew the fix was in. 115-112 for Toney was the more accurate score for the fight. However, a reasonable person could differ a couple points in either direction – and that would be acceptable – but NOT 116-111 for Peter. Absurd...even the two judges in agreement couldn’t agree on the same rounds for Toney!
I understand the argument for Peter’s victory is that he landed the harder shots. And, yes, while Peter hurt Toney on three occasions, Toney never hurt Peter. But that doesn’t automatically create a victory for Peter. Toney never went down, and was controlling those rounds up until the time he was rocked. And, afterwards, Toney regained control of the fight.
It was clear, the better fighter schooled Sam Peter; James Toney landed the cleaner punches, landed more punches, and controlled the majority of the tempo for the fight.
If it was merely a contest of strength, then have the two athletes bench press and be done with it. Winner takes all.
As for the evening, the Mighty-Moe was able mingle with the glitteratti, and shake hands with Nicolai Valuev, Don King and Lou Duva.
