By Jim Dower: 43-year-old former three division world champion James Toney (73-7-3, 44 KO’s) will be facing Bobby Gunn (21-4-2, 18 KO’s) in a 12 round bout on Saturday at the Landers Center in Southaven, Mississippi. Toney lost his last fight against Denis Lebedev by a 12 round unanimous decision for the interim WBA World cruiserweight title last November.

That was one of Toney’s rare fights nowadays where he fought a world class fighter, because Toney has been taking soft opposition since his 2nd round no contest fight with Hasim Rahman in July 2008. Toney’s last three fights have come against Fres Oquendo, Matthew Greer and Damon Reed. Toney appeared to lose the Oquendo fight but the judges sided with him.

It’s hard to believe that Toney was at one of one of the best super middleweights in the world. He’s looked so heavy since he moved up to the heavyweight division in 2003. Toney was a good heavyweight between 2003 and 2007. However, his two fights against the hard hitting Samuel Peter seemed to take something out of Toney, because he’s not done well since losing the back to back fights against Peter. It’s been pretty much easy street for Toney ever since the Peter fights.

Gunn is a former cruiserweight contender who’s known for being the guy that was knocked out by Enzo Maccarinelli in a 1st round knockout in April 2007. Gunn has fought a lot of 2nd tier opposition since then. In 2009, Gunn was stopped by Tomasz Adamek in the 4th round in a fight for the IBF cruiserweight title. It was a mismatch. That was Gunn’s boxing fight.

Toney should win this fight on Saturday unless he’s really lost it. Gunn has respectable power but he’s giving away a ton in the way of experience against quality opposition and ring know how. You can’t match a fighter like Toney in boxing knowledge because he’s brilliant. But his body is no longer able to do things that his mind wants him to.