TEMECULA, CA - Heavyweight contender James 'Lights Out' Toney returned after an eleven month layoff to dominate Rydell Booker for twelve rounds Thursday night at the Pechanga Resort and Casino.
Toney looked impressive and in relatively good shape, considering he was coming off a long layoff. Toney however was not impressed with his performance.
"I give myself C-minus. I came out of shape," said Toney.
Toney tore an Achilles' tendon in training earlier this year and had to cancel a bout against 6’7 Jameel McCline last Feb. 7.
The beginning of the bout looked good for Booker who frequently landed left right combinations, but his inexperience began to show through as the momentum began to drastically shift in Toney's favour.
In the second round, Toney opened up and began to land hard shots to his liking. Fighting cautiously on the outside, Booker often left himself open to huge Toney uppercuts that wobbled 6'3 Detroit native.
"I had a lot of bounce in my step. I was feeling very good," Toney said.
Toney continued with the onslaught and in the eighth round landed a stream of punches to Booker's head and jaw. At that point, Booker decided it would be best to take a knee to the disgust of the partisan crowd who booed him vehemently.
Booker fought on to only receive more punishment from Toney's stiff left jabs and hard right shots to the body. To make matters worse, Toney fighting with a visible smile on his face seemed to be having fun in the ring at Booker's expense.
By the end of the fight, Booker bled from both his mouth and nose and was left with a swollen face.
After the fight, Toney said he sustained an injury early in the fight. "I hurt my arm in the first round throwing a jab-hook," he said. "I felt I would have taken him out except for that."
Judge Frank Garza gave every round to Toney, scoring it 120-107. Barry Druxman had it 118-108, and Marty Denkin favoured Toney 117-110. Infiniteboxing scored it 119-108.
With the victory, Toney retains his WBC #1 ranking and improves his record to 68-4-2 (43 KOs), while Booker drops his first going to 22-1 (12 KOs).
Before the fight, a scuffle broke out after the weigh-in when Toney smacked Booker after he blew a kiss at Toney during the face off for cameras.
In other action, former WBC bantamweight champion Wayne McCullough, 27-4 scored a second round knockout over Mike Juarez , 23-15-2 in a featherweight bout. Also, welterweight Mark Suarez, 22-2 stopped Brad Jensen, 13-14-3 in round three and heavyweight David Bostice, 33-8-1 won a ten round decision over Cisse Salif, 14-4-2. Scores were 95-94, 96-93, 96-93.
