Last night in New York City James Toney did a lot of us a big favor, a huge favor. He finally rid the boxing world of John Ruiz. It wasn't a dazzling or a dominating performance but it was enough to win.

     The early rounds were close and the fighters went back and forth. By saying back and forth I'm not speaking of back and forth action I'm speaking of each fighter would do just enough to win the round and most of the early rounds went this way. To John's credit he let his hands go more than usual. Ruiz also landed some nice body punches but not enough to have any lasting effect on Toney, who as usual looked laid back and relaxed in the ring picking his opportunities to throw his punches.

     Toney began to take charge in the second half of the fight scoring a knockdown in round seven. As the bell rang to start the seventh round Toney charged at Ruiz and landed a punch, he also stepped on Ruiz's foot; the combination of the two sent Ruiz into the ropes and down referee Steve Smoger picked up the ten count. Ruiz was not hurt and fought on but it was never enough as Toney always did enough to win the rounds. Going into the championship rounds it was obvious that Ruiz was tired and didn’t have enough in the gas tank to make one final charge at Toney.

     The bell rang to end the final round and a new champion was crowned. James Toney became only the third middleweight to crown himself a heavyweight champion. The landscape of the heavyweight division changes with James Toney as the WBA champion and John Ruiz retiring.. I must add, though, while watching the fight I didn't see either man emerging as the man in the heavyweight division. I have a hard time picturing either fighter beating Vitali Klitschko or Chris Byrd. But this is boxing and the greatest part is that in this sport anything can happen. With the win James Toney improves his record to 69-4-2 (43 KO's) while John Ruiz drops to 41-5-1 (28 KO's)