Coming into Thursday's fight, James Toney had said, "I see this fight like that scene in the 'Rocky' movie where he is hitting that slab of meat". On Thursday night James Toney pounded away on Rydell Booker like a slab of meat on his way to a unanimous decision victory before a sellout crowd at the Pechanga Resort & Casino in Temecula, California.

Rydell Booker tried to get under Toney's skin at Tuesday's weigh in, when he blew Toney a kiss, which sent Toney into a angry rampage. When Booker came to the ring on Thursday night, he came to the ring with the song, "Give Me a Kiss to Build a Dream On" from Louis Armstrong. Booker continued to try to get under Toney's skin with his entrance music, but it wouldn't work. Booker's best round may have been the opening round, where he came out and landed a good straight right to start, and followed it with another solid right. Toney was his usual crafty self, using angles and shaking Booker's punches. Toney came out a little wild to start, and said after the fight that he injured his arm in this opening round.

Toney said he hurt the tricep on his left arm in the opening round, and that it would keep him from being able to knock Booker out. Toney came back in the opening round with a couple of good hooks to the body. After Booker landed a combination midway into the round, Toney smiled and laughed at Booker. With Toney focused on the body in the opening round,  Booker was able to establish a decent jab. If there was a round that Booker may have won, it was round one. Toney came out stronger in the second round, landing a great counter right. Toney later cornered Booker and slammed left and right hooks to the body. Booker looked a little pudgy, and Toney seemed determine to exploit that.

Toney was able to block a lot of Booker's shots in the round. Toney started to establish his best and most consistent punches of the fight, the right hook to the body, followed by a right uppercut. Toney was able to land this combo through most of the fight very effectively. Hook, Hook, uppercut was the recipe for Toney's demolition of Booker, who never could find an answer for this. Late in the round Toney stunned Booker with a flush right uppercut. Booker was able to land the occasional shot, but not nearly as powerful as Toney's shots.

Booker opened the third round with a good counter left hook, but Toney came back with a good overhand right which bloodied Booker's nose. Toney continued his body, body, uppercut combos and it started to take away Booker's jab. Booker opened round four by landing a decent left hook, but Toney then started to go upstairs. Toney's body attack began to open up Booker's face. Toney landed a beautiful overhand right, and again landed his body hook, body hook, right uppercut combo. Towards the end of the round, Toney landed a solid straight right to end the round.

Booker started to jab again in round five, and landed a good counter left hook. Toney came back with a punishing right uppercut, and again went back to his body, body, uppercut combo, which Booker never had an answer for throughout the whole fight. It appeared at this point that Toney was just toying with Booker, that he could finish off Booker at any moment. Give Booker credit, he took a tremendous amount of punishment and was able to survive the whole 12 rounds. Again in round six, Booker had no answer for Toney's right hook, right uppercut combo. Toney landed a solid overhand right and right cross midway into the round. In round six, Toney concentrated on right crosses and uppercuts. Toney was a little less active this round, but still deadly.

Booker started round seven landing a good straight right, but Toney took the round with a great stunning right hand. Booker was able to land the occasional punch, but they seemed to have little effect on Toney, and didn't seem to have much power behind them. In round eight, Toney greeted Booker with a left hook, which sent Booker down to one knee. Booker had a delayed reaction, and then went down. Toney dominated the round with barrages of overhand rights, right uppercuts, and body shots. Toney continued his body and uppercut combos again in round nine. The pace slowed a little bit this round, as Booker at this point appeared to be just trying to survive. Toney continued to break Booker down and take away his early round offense.

Booker landed a good left early to start round ten. A few moments later the two fighters butted heads, causing complaints from Booker, but no harm was done from the headbutt. Toney would later wobble Booker with a beautiful left, right combo to the his foe's chin. Round eleven started with Booker landing a decent combination. But, again Toney appeared to hurt Booker with his consistent body-uppercut combo. As the bell sounded to end the round, Toney taunted Booker as they went to their corners. The final round saw Booker landing a few decent shots as Toney got a little wild trying to finish Booker off. Toney still had a good round to finish the fight. Toney would win a unanimous decision over Booker and capture the IBA heavyweight championship. The judges scores for the fight were 117-111,120-107, and 118-110 for Toney. BRC scored the fight 119-108 for Toney.

Toney had a lot to say to the press at his post fight press conference. Toney said  he was disappointed that he did not knock Booker out, and that his first round arm injury prevented him from doing so. He said the injury occurred when he threw a left hook wildly in the first round, adding, "That's what I get for being too excited." He further stated that if he would have been 100%,  he would have knocked Booker out. He said the injury was in the tricep area of his left arm, and that it shouldn't affect his next fight in mid December.

Toney said that he was never hurt in the fight, and never felt any of Booker's punches. When asked if Booker's trash talking and antics irritated him, Toney said, "I wanted to knock him out. The way he tried to disrespect me, he ticked me off and kept running his mouth, saying what he was going to do to me." Chris Byrd was in the booth for the "Best Damn Sports Show Period" telecast and said after the fight that Toney's performance was good, but nothing heavyweights will be worried about. When Toney was told of this comment, he responded by saying, " God bless him, bring it on, all he needs to do is sign a contract". Toney then got to talking about why the fight with Byrd, Lamon Brewster, or John Ruiz would be tough to make, and the subject switched to Don King.

Toney said King would be the reason for those fights never happening. Toney started to talk about King saying, "Don King is a great promoter for his fighters, you know why that is? He's like the penitentiary, he keeps his fighters in protective custody. As long as Byrd, Brewster, and Ruiz are with him, they don't have to worry, because they will never see me." He went back to Byrd's comment saying, "So, Chris Byrd can sit on the stage, and talk all he wants, and after his performances against Fres Oquendo and Andrew Golota, he can kiss my a**." When asked about the possibility of fighting Vitali Klitschko, Toney's promoter Dan Goossen interjected and said that Toney is going to be the WBC #1 contender, and that James will fight whoever the WBC champion is.

It was also announced that Toney's next fight will be on December 18th on HBO. Details of the fight are still being worked out. Goossen said it would be a top five guy, and a WBC elimination bout. The fight will be with whoever the WBC mandates Toney to fight. When Toney was asked about the "Best Damn Sports Show Period's" Tom Arnold sparring with Toney, he said, "I need to get Tom on Trim Spa and get him into shape". Toney improved to 68-4-2 with the victory, while Booker fell to 22-1.

Also on the card was the return of featherweight Wayne McCullough. McCullough had not fought since losing to Scott Harrison nearly a year and a half ago. McCullough fought Mike Juarez of Omaha, Nebraska. The "Pocket Rocket" took the fight right to the tough Juarez. McCullough came out attacking the body. Juarez was tough, landing the occasional counter shot, but had trouble withstanding McCullough's onslaught of combinations. Near the end of the opening round, McCullough suffered a cut over his left eye from a headbutt.

McCullough fought with a sense of urgency in the second round after the cut. As he attacked Juarez with a ferocious attack. McCullough was able to beat the game Juarez to the punch. Towards the end of the round, McCullough cornered Juarez and wailed away. Juarez's mouthpiece went flying out after a few left hooks, and Juarez went down. Referee Jose Cubian called a halt to the fight at 2:59 of the second round. An impressive comeback win for the Irishman McCullough, as he improved to 27-4 with 18 KOs. Also in action was Welterweight prospect Mark Suarez of Riverside, California. Suarez continued his winning ways with a 3rd round TKO win over Brad Jensen of Wichita, Kansas. Suarez improved to 22-2 with the win, while Jensen fell to 13-14-3.

A ten round heavyweight attraction was also on the Goossen-Tutor card. Tough veteran David Bostice of Phoenix, Arizona took on Cisse Salif of New York City. Bostice would win a close unanimous decision. The opening round was slow, kind of a feeling out round. Salif landed a few decent body shots to maybe take the round. Both fighters started to open up in the second round. Bostice landed a good left hook to the body, and snuck a right hand through Salif's defense. Later in the round Bostice caught Salif with a good overhand right, which knocked Salif down. Salif survived the round, but not before Bostice landed a good right uppercut, and a solid straight right.

Round three opened with Salif landing a good left hook, but Bostice countered it with a right hand. Salif was more aggressive then Bostice this round, and was able to counter Bostice effectively in the round. Round four found Bostice going again to the body with hooks, but Salif outworked Bostice throughout the round landing bigger shots. There was a delay in round five, because the lights went out, but they were quickly restored. Bostice opened by landing a good left hook. The two started to exchange as Salif landed a good straight left, and Bostice landed a left hook to the body. Bostice put his punches together well in this round as he also landed a solid overhand right.

Bostice began round six by landing a good left-right combo to the head and body. Salif was getting to be a little less accurate this round. Salif came back strong in round seven as he hurt Bostice with a great overhand right. As he hurt Bostice, Salif got a little wild and could not knock Bostice down. Salif had a good eighth round also, and was becoming more accurate with his punches, seemingly swinging the fight. Bostice then bounced back in round nine with a great overhand right. Bostice also lands a great left-right hook combo to the cheek of Salif to cap the round. The final round found Bostice doing just a little more than Salif. Bostice was able to land a solid stiff jab to possibly take the all important final round. Bostice won a unanimous decision 95-94,96-93, and 96-93. BRC scored the fight 95-94 for Bostice. Bostice improved to 33-8-1, while Salif fell to 14-4-2.

It was a very exciting night of Boxing at the Pechanga Resort & Casino capped off by a demonstrative victory by James Toney, and a successful comeback victory for Wayne McCullough. The card was promoted by Goossen-Tutor Promotions.