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James Toney looked every inch a shot 38 year old fighter last night at the HP Pavilion in San Jose, CA as the former multi-weight world champion posted a boring split decision victory over journeyman Danny Batchelder at heavyweight.
Coming in at 229 lb, the lightest for Toney since 2004, “Lights Out” looked sluggish the entire bout and it seems that the Michigan native may have finally reached the end of the road after 79 professional bouts.
Credit must be given to 30 year old Batchelder, 25-5-1 (12), who wisely made the shorter Toney, 70-6 3 (43), lead and refused to play to his opponent’s strength in counterpunching.
As Toney reluctantly came forward, the former defensive genius was hit by a shocking number of shots, mostly jabs, from Batchelder and the seemingly out of shape former champion was never able to muster a a sustained offense when he was able to close the distance.
When the slow paced bout came to a merciful close after ten rounds, Toney was declared the winner by split decision 98-92, 97-93 and 94-96.
