James Toney made good on his word and pasted alphabet beltholder John Ruiz in New York City's Madison Square Garden last night.

Although he didn't knock him out, Toney landed short right hands all night long as a frustrated Ruiz had trouble finding his elusive opponent. "Lights Out" was not in peak shape, but Ruiz didn't look like he was in best form either, and as Toney rolled with Ruiz's punches and didn't allow him to clinch too much, Ruiz had no answer for the slick old-school fighter.

Referee Steve Smoger did a good job of encouraging Ruiz not to hold, and coupled with Toney's counterpunching the fight was mildly entertaining. Even Ruiz's fiery manager Norman Stone was well behaved. In the 7th round, Toney stepped on Ruiz's foot and Ruiz fell but it was ruled a knockdown. In the following rounds both fighters looked lethargic, but in the 11th Toney landed a hellacious right hand that didn't seem to faze Ruiz too much but was indicative of the way the fight was going for him - he just couldn't get out of the way of it. Ruiz attacked in the 12th round, but by then it was too little too late. I scored the fight 117-111 for Toney.

John Ruiz, as HBO's Larry Merchant pointed out, now has the dubious distinction of losing his heavyweight strap twice to middleweights (Roy Jones Jr. was the other); and only three middlweights in HISTORY have ever accomplished such a feat. Now that Toney has one third of the heavyweight pie, he could fight Chris Byrd for his IBF title (and be favoured to beat him). If victorious, he could face the winner of September's Klitschko-Rahman bout.

And if James "Lights Out" Toney becomes the undisputed heavyweight champion of the world, the heavyweight picture would be a lot more interesting.