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James Toney returned to the cruiserweight ranks for the first time since 2003 but the 43 year old could do nothing with opponent Denis Lebedev last night at Khodynka Ice Palace in Moscow, Russia.
Despite scaling 58 pounds less than in his February bout against Damon Reed, Toney seemed to have difficulty maintaining good balance against southpaw Lebedev.
Lebedev seemed to have all the momentum in last evening’s fight, coming off a ten round KO of Roy Jones Jr in May and a disputed split decision loss to WBO cruiser champ Marco Huck last December.
Constantly coming forward, Lebedev was able to pressure the veteran in the early frames with a probing right jab that preceded the occasional hard left hand.
Toney was intent on drawing his rival into countering opportunities but could not pull the trigger with sufficient timing to catch Lebedev with anything of consequence.
The middle rounds saw Lebedev step up his efforts and catch the veteran with bracing shots that forced Toney into full defensive mode to minimize the punishment.
Lebedev was in complete control during the later rounds with Toney struggling at times to make it to the final bell.
When the scores were read, Lebedev swept the cards 120-108 twice and 120-107, improving to 23-1 (17), while Toney falls to 73-7-3 (44).
This could be the end of the road for Toney, who was brilliant during his 1991-1992 IBF middleweight and 1993-1994 IBF super middle title reigns, but was far from that is Moscow.
