Toney vs. Lebedev for interim WBA cruiserweight title on Nov 4th

By Boxing News - 10/26/2011 - Comments

Image: Toney vs. Lebedev for interim WBA cruiserweight title on Nov 4thBy Dan Ambrose: The November 4th fight between 43-year-old James Toney (73-6-3, 44 KO’s) and Russian Denis Lebedev (22-1, 17 KO’s) will have the interim WBA cruiserweight title on the line in their fight at the Khodynka Ice Palace in Moscow, Russia.

You just knew there was going to be some kind of trinket on the line for this fight. Lebedev, 32, should arguably already be the WBO cruiserweight champion after his controversial loss to WBO cruiserweight champion Marco Huck last year in December. Lebedev appeared to win that fight by a lopsided decision only to lose out to the German based Huck in this fight that took place in Germany.

Lebedev has been taking things slow since then, fighting only once in beating 42-year-old Roy Jones Jr. last May by a 10th round KO. Now Lebedev is taking on another old fighter in Toney, and it’s another likely win for Lebedev. Hopefully, Lebedev doesn’t waste his potential by picking out older warriors instead of the younger top cruiserweight contenders and/or champions. Part of the problem for Lebedev is that Huck isn’t eager to get back in the ring with him. This means that Lebedev either has to wait or go after the other cruiserweight champions such as Guillermo Jones, Yoan Pablo Hernandez and Krzysztof Wlodarczyk.

Toney’s career at heavyweight has been sinking since he received a no contest in his challenge for the WBA heavyweight title in 2005. Toney defeated Ruiz in that fight but results were changed to a no contest after Toney tested positive for a banned substance after the fight. Since that fight, Toney’s wins have may come against 2nd tier heavyweights. He was beaten twice by Samuel Peter, fought to a 12 round draw with Hasim Rahman and then to a 3 round no contest with Rahman in a rematch. In recent years, Toney has fought exclusively 2nd tier opposition. His last fight was last February when he defeated Damon Reed (46-14) by 10 round decision.

Toney will be taking off a lot of weight for this fight to get down to the 200 pound cruiserweight limit. Toney last weighed 257 lbs for the Reed fight. There’s a real danger here that Toney could not only be too old to win, but also too weight drained.



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