No doubt, Peter defeats Toney

Samuel Peter never liked the idea of fighting James Toney again, insisting that he clearly beat him the first time around.

After what happened Saturday night in their second fight, Toney might not want another rematch.

Peter beat Toney for the second time in four months, getting a unanimous decision in a World Boxing Council heavyweight elimination bout and perhaps the chance to fight Oleg Maskaev for a championship.

Peter (28-1, 22 knockouts) was ahead on two cards by scores of 118-110; he led the other card, 119-108.

When it was over, the fighters seemed to disagree again on the outcome, with Toney raising his right fist in victory and Peter dancing around in his half of the ring.

But deep down, Toney (69-6-3, 43 KOs) probably couldn’t have believed that he would emerge the winner.

“First time, I knew I beat him,” Peter said. “I won the first fight.”

He took this one too.

When the fighters last met, on Sept. 2 in Staples Center, both claimed to have won convincingly. And observers, too, couldn’t agree on a winner.

Peter was the winner by 116-111 margins on two judges’ cards that night, but Toney was ahead, 115-112, on the third card -- and many ringside viewers also thought he won the bout. So the WBC intervened and, by a vote of its board of governors, ordered a rematch with the caveat that the winner would get a title shot.

Peter had the best of the early going Saturday, including a knockdown 20 seconds into the second round -- the first time Toney had been knocked down since 1994, when Roy Jones Jr. did it in an easy win over the then-super-middleweight.

“I slipped,” Toney said. “I didn’t go down. I feel I won the fight but it’s all good. We’ll fight another fight....This guy is supposed to be a puncher, but he couldn’t knock me out.”

On the undercard, Travis Simms took back the championship he never actually lost.

Simms, whose World Boxing Assn. super-welterweight belt was stripped because he never defended it, stopped Jose Antonio Rivera in the ninth round to reclaim the title.