By Johnny Ortiz
Photo © Ed Mulholland/FightWireImages.com
January 6 was once regarded as the day of the “Epiphany,” the Christian feast commemorating the revelation of Jesus to humanity, specifically the visit of the Magi. What better day than this for James and Samuel, two revered biblical names, to do battle. It is also a day that has special meaning for me; it was the day I was born. I bear the middle name of Melchor, (Spanish for Melchior) I was named after one of the three Wise Men. That is why this wise man is again picking James Toney (69-5, 43KOs) to emerge victorious in this, his second WBC elimination fight with Samuel Peter (27-1, 22KOs).
Coincidently, with this being the first, big important fight of the New Year, the winner will be rewarded with a chance at the ultimate prize in boxing, a shot at the WBC Heavyweight Championship. The WBC’s new champion, Oleg Maskaev, currently holds the title. As far as their first fight is concerned, I really cannot comprehend how two of the three judges came up with Samuel Peter as the victor by such a large edge. These two, apparently in need of Seeing Eye dogs, had Peter winning by five points, both had it 111-116. The other judge, Gale Van Hoy, had it right, giving James the nod by the score of 115-112. The fight may have appeared close to some, but the outcome was undeniably in favor of James Toney.
I clearly had James winning the fight, as did the majority of the boxing writers present at the fight and all of the knowledgeable boxing people I talked to after the fight, a few even had James winning by a margin of 117-111. I have no clue what fight those two judges were watching, how in the world could they have had Peter winning by five rounds? Those in attendance loudly booed the decision. I will admit that there were a couple of rounds that might have been close and could have gone either way, but not five rounds. There was such an outcry of the ridiculous scoring that the WBC rightfully ordered a rematch due to the controversy. It was a hard, fought fight, the kind you expect two top rated heavyweights to put on. I thought James outslicked the heavy-handed Peter for most of the fight, just as he will have to do once again. Samuel did rock James a couple of times, but not without the help of shots behind the head.
In his fight with Wladimir Klitschko, Peter scored a couple of knockdowns, but watching the replay closely; they were clearly the result of Peter’s habit of throwing behind the head, illegal punches. Wladimir went on to expose the one-dimensional Peter, who only knows one way of fighting, and that is to always come forward in hopes of landing his highly touted haymakers. In the twelfth round, Wladimir hurt Peter, staggering him late in the round, causing him to do the “Funky Judah.” The bell saved Samuel, had there been a little more time on the clock, or had it gone one more round, Wladimir would have surely scored a knockout. James does not have the luxury of Wladimir’s punching power; he will again have to do it by outthinking and outslicking Peter. I wasn’t too happy with James carrying 233 pounds into the ring the night of the fight; for the rematch I would like to see him come in at around 215 or 220. The same goes for Samuel Peter, it would serve him well to unload some of the 257 pounds he brought into the ring on September 9, 2006, in either case, extra weight can only bog you down the longer the fight goes.
Peter is an awesome puncher that has bad intentions written on every punch he throws, he doesn’t have the ring skills of a James Toney, he has to learn not to waste a lot of energy by throwing big punches that hit nothing but air. Any good trainer will tell you that missing a big punch takes more out of you than it does landing one. Peter is a big man, he needs to have someone teach him how to pace himself, by doing that, he would conserve energy allowing him to have some gas left in the tank for the later rounds. Wladimir took him to school by letting him waste a lot of big punches, and then capitalizing by counterpunching his huge misses. Samuel should also go into the ring with the boxing mentality that he shouldn’t look for a knockout with every punch; he should go for it when the opportunity to score a knockout presents itself. In other words, at the young age of 26, the sooner Peter fully learns the fine rudiments of boxing, the better fighter he will become.
There is definitely more to boxing than just being a slugger. On the other side of the coin, James has to concentrate more on his wonderful defensive moves, make the other guy miss and then make him pay. If he comes in at a lighter weight, James will be able to move around the ring quicker, setting up his vast array of punches. He is one of the more intelligent fighters to come out of the modern era; James Toney can only beat James Toney.
At 38 years of age, he knows he has seen better days, haven’t we all, knowing that he will be giving away twelve years to the 26 year old Peter, he has to constantly think on his feet, avoid toe-to-toe confrontations; he will not beat the heavy-handed Peter in this department. James has to stay off the ropes and keep Peter in the middle of the ring where he can work his magic. I look for a hard fought fight, a puncher against a calculating thinker, I cannot bring myself to think much of the training method employed by Samuel’s trainers, judging from Peter’s last two fights going from Klitscko to Toney, they changed nothing in his style of fighting. It appears they send him out with the instructions to go forward and destroy, maybe in this fight they will implement some new strategy.
Make no mistake about it, Samuel Peter will never be looked on as the second coming of Muhammad Ali, he has to do what he does best by doing what got him this far, and that is to take the fight to his opponent, look for openings in order to unload his awesome, heavy artillery, he just has to throw in a little finesse at times and be taught not to waste too many punches. It has been said that it is sometimes very hard to teach an old dog new tricks, although in this particular case, a young dog…you get my drift.
Maybe we will see some changes in his style, maybe not, in reality; his aggressive style is what makes Samuel Peter such a destructive force to reckon with, his attitude of “Damn the torpedoes, full speed ahead,” is what makes him the most exciting heavyweight in the division. Who am I to argue with 22 KO’s in 27 fights w/only one loss, but then again, Samuel has had to go the distance in three of his last four fights. On the subject of trainers, the one big edge James has going for him in this department is the fact that he has one of the very best in the business in Freddie Roach, a disciple of the greatest trainer of them all, Eddie Futch. As with all of his fighters, Freddie will have James primed and ready to go on the night of January 6th. Also worth noting is that this time around, James has done something he is not accustomed to doing, and that is to bring in a fitness expert in the form of Billy Blanks.
Blanks has had great and rewarding success in helping other athletes and fighters shed the pounds, if successful in getting the needed weight off of James, look for Lights Out, by coming in trim and in fighting shape, to fight the slick, defensive fight he is so very capable of doing, while his offense instinctively takes care of itself.
James needs to stay focused at all times and not get careless, by doing this, he should, and will, get his hand raised the way it should have been raised the first time around. I have been in James Toney’s corner since the day we became good friends many, many years ag0. I will sink or swim with him.