Toney Finally Relives His Favorite Scene

James Toney stood in the ring at Madison Square Garden and had his hand raised in triumph at the end of a heavyweight title fight.

But it was only a movie. It was the Los Angeles Sports Arena doubling as the Garden. Toney was portraying Joe Frazier in the movie “Ali.” The man he beat was actor Will Smith playing Muhammad Ali.

When Toney subsequently vowed to turn reel life into real life, to actually win the heavyweight championship, the doubters chuckled.

Indeed, it seemed more fanciful than a movie script.

When he finally stepped into the real Madison Square Garden ring Saturday night, Toney had 17 years of fighting wear and tear on his 36-year-old body, not to mention a career-high 233 pounds. He was trying to become only the third former middleweight to make the jump to heavyweight champion and was trying to come back from two serious injuries -- a ruptured left Achilles’ tendon suffered early last year and a torn left biceps suffered in his last fight in September.

Yet 12 rounds later, there was Toney, replaying his movie moment.

He stood in the middle of the ring, arms upraised, his face flush with victory, and soaked in the words of ring announcer Michael Buffer.

“The winner and new heavyweight champion of the world, James Toney.”

Toney reached this unlikely goal by winning a unanimous decision over World Boxing Assn. titleholder John Ruiz,

Afterward, the 33-year-old Ruiz announced his retirement.

“I’ve been fighting since I was 7,” Ruiz said, “boxing never opened up its arms to me. All the criticism and negativity in the last few fights have finally taken its toll. My heart is not in it anymore. It’s time for me to move on with the rest of my life.”

Judges Don Ackerman and Guy Jutras scored the fight 116-111. The third judge, Tom Schreck, had it 115-112.

The fight was ugly, as Ruiz fights tend to be. His fights generally involve more wrestling than boxing.

Ruiz threw the first clinch within five seconds of the opening bell, eliciting the first boos from the crowd.

There was plenty of holding to follow, resulting in more boos from the disappointing and disappointed crowd of 9,169.

Even the best action in the fight turned out to be a bad reaction by referee Steve Smoger. Smoger ruled in the seventh round that Toney had knocked Ruiz down.

But replays showed that Toney had not only pushed Ruiz down, but assured his fall to the canvas by tripping Ruiz with his left foot.

In triumph, Toney (69-4-2, 43 knockouts), a former middleweight, super-middleweight and cruiserweight champion, was less than gracious.

“I didn’t expect much because John Ruiz is an average fighter,” Toney said.

“He’s stupid. He can’t change his style. He only knows how to fight one way. But I do take my hat off to him for giving me this opportunity.”

Ruiz (41-6-1, 28) said Toney was “a tough guy to fight. He moves around a lot. But I finished stronger and I felt I won the fight.”

International Boxing Federation heavyweight champion Chris Byrd was at the post-fight news conference to challenge Toney. Toney said his first choice for his next fight would be World Boxing Council heavyweight champion Vitali Klitschko.

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There were two other championship matches on Saturday’s card. In the semi-main event, Luis Perez (23-1, 15) of Nicaragua defended his IBF junior bantamweight title by knocking out Luis Bolano (38-3, 28) of Colombia at 2:46 of the sixth round. It was the third time Bolano was down in the fight.

Vicente Mosquera (21-1-1, 10) knocked Yodsanan Nanthachai (44-3-1, 36) of Thailand down three times en route to winning Nanthachai’s WBA super-featherweight title by unanimous decision.

Mosquera was also down once in the fight.

It was Nanthachai’s first loss in 11 years, a span in which he won 36 straight with one draw.