03.05.04 – Dino Duva, promoter of red-hot heavyweight Samuel “The Nigerian Nightmare” Peter, says he is outraged by the post-fight conduct and comments of new WBA Heavyweight boss James Toney and claims he has just the thing to finally shut the trash talking former middleweight champion’s mouth. “Although he beat John Ruiz fair and square, James Toney is a classless punk for the way he disrespected my friend and class act Johnny Ruiz after the fight,” said Duva..
“If he has any balls, he will fight the top contender, Samuel Peter next.”
Peter further solidified himself as the top young heavyweight with a devastating knockout of usually durable Gilbert Martinez on Friday Night Fights last week, a day before Toney’s title-winning effort over John Ruiz.
“I doubt he has the balls to fight Samuel,” he continued. “If he did, it would give me great pleasure to watch Sam beat the hell out of him.”
Team Peter says they hope Toney will at least stick to his post-fight promises to be an active champion.
“What was his quote? Anybody, anywhere, any time? Let’s see if he really means that,” said Peter manager Ivalyo Gotzev. “Toney is not the answer for the heavyweight division. It does more damage than good having a 37-year-old blown-up middleweight as champion. I guarantee Samuel wouldn’t just retire James Toney, he’d break him in half.”
With the ESPN2 broadcast team referring to Peter at “the new Godzilla” and the HBO broadcast team including him in a list of fighters deserving participation in a heavyweight championship tournament, Duva says he’s ready to put things on paper. “Write this down. I am prepared to make a very lucrative offer to James Toney and his promoters to face Samuel Peter.”
If you don’t hear James Toney talking about facing Sam Peter in the next few weeks, it’s because he’s scared, just like the punk that he really is.”
“He may claim he sent John Ruiz to the trash can, but Samuel is going to put such a beating on James, he’ll wish he had a trash can to hide in,” added Gotzev.