By Allen Fox: James Toney (73-6-3, 44 KO’s) will be taking off 50+ pounds to get down to 200 lbs to face Russian cruiserweight Denis Lebedev (22-1, 17 KO’s) on November 5th in Lebedev’s home country of Russia. Toney, 43, will be fighting the younger 32-year-old Lebedev at the Khodynka Ice Palace in Moscow, Russia.

Toney wants to get revenge for Lebedev’s recent 10th round KO win over 42-year-old Roy Jones Jr. last May. Toney took exception with Lebedev cherry-picking a fight with the aging past his prime Jones and wants to right things by showing that American fighters can’t get pushed around by European guys.

Toney said “I’m going to invade Russia to show this punk what happens when he messes with the USA. I’m calling it Lights out in Russia because he’s just the first one I’m going to whip. After I beat up Lebedev, I’m going back to heavyweight after the one too afraid to fight the Klitschko sisters. Povetkin, I’m kicking his a** too!”

This will be a very interesting fight if Toney can get down to 200 pounds without it draining him to the point where he had nothing left. Toney is reportedly near the 200 pound mark already and should be able to make the weight without any need for a catch weight handicap.

However, it’s been eight years since Toney last fought a crusierweight fight and oddly enough it was against another Russian, Vassily Jirov in April 2003. Toney defeated Jirov by a 12 round unanimous decision in a fight where he badly punished the Russian to the point where Jirov was never the same fighter afterwards.

But that was a long time ago, and Lebedev is in his prime and is probably the best fighter in the crusierweight division right now. Lebedev was beaten by WBO cruiserweight champion Marco Huck by a 12 round split decision last December. However, many people felt that Lebedev should have been given the decision in that fight.