James Toney grabs IBU heavyweight gold by nailing Bobby Gunn in the fourth round – Boxing news
James Toney, the former multi-divisional world champion, made an impressive comeback and startled the world by grabbing the vacant International Boxing Universe (IBU) heavyweight gold, after collecting a fifth-round retired hurt win over Bobby Gunn and proved
that he does not want to hand up his gloves at least for now.
The ring for the bout was stretched at Landers Center situated in Southaven, Mississippi, United States and the event was co-promoted by Brian Young of Prize Fight Promotions and Greg Cohen of Greg Cohen Promotions. The above duo headlined the Saturday night
show and the battle between Bobby Bryant and Justin Flanagan co-headlined the pay-per-view.
Toney was making a comeback after almost four months and was entering in his career’s 86th bout. James is a veteran who started his professional career in 1988 and since then has nailed 73 opponents, a huge 45 of them via knockout.
The 43-year-old has pinned many big names and was coming from a unanimous decision loss over Denis Lebedev, a bout with interim WBA world cruiserweight gold up for grabs.
With emphatic wins over Evander Holyfield, Fres Oquendo, Matthew Greer and others, Toney, also known as the ‘Lights Out’, is known as one of the best heavyweights in the division. His opponent, Bobby Gunn, was nowhere to be found in front of the heavily
experienced James.
Bobby, 38, was entering in his career’s 28th bout and boasted 21 wins with 18 of them via knockout. Gunn, also known as ‘The Celtic Warrior’, was coming from a retired hurt loss in a bout against Tomasz Adamek, a battle with Tomasz’s IBF cruiserweight gold
on the line.
The legendary James started things off and from the very start kept Bobby on his toes. Toney did not give any kind of leverage to the Celtic Warrior and kept on pummelling with his heavy-duty jabs.
Toney kept his right hand down so as to give Gunn a chance to make the move but the latter exhibited a diffident approach and did not try at all to make the first move. As a result, James was the one who moved forward and targeted Gunn’s head emphatically.
The show was going on and Toney led all the three cards convincingly when in the beginning of the fifth round, Bobby complained a broken hand. The on-spot physician examined the ailing area and afterwards announced that Gunn cannot compete any more.
The bout referee announced a retired hurt win in favour of James Toney officially denoting him as the new IBU heavyweight champion. This is the first time Toney has won the IBU apex divisional gold. The 43-year-old during the whole four rounds did not show
even a single sign of fatigue or sluggishness and looked in his prime form.
James now will most probably collide with David "El Nino" Rodriguez on June 15, 2012. Toney now has 74 wins and Gunn has collected his fifth loss.
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