James Toney

[DJ Pat]

After dethroning John Ruiz, James Toney showed up at the postfight press conference at the Garden Saturday night and did what he does second best - berate hecklers.

Considering how easily he had beaten Ruiz, taking on smart-mouth wannabes was Toney's hardest task of the night. After awhile, he gave up and bid everyone good night so he could get on with his coronation/celebration.

Ruiz may have fared better if he had shown up to trade barbs with Toney. Oh yeah, he did that before the fight and lost there, too.

Toney (69-4-2, 43 KOs) became just the third middleweight champion in history to move up and win a heavyweight title, joining Bob Fitzsimmons and Roy Jones Jr. in that exclusive club. Jones sat ringside and worked the HBO broadcast. Jones, using superior speed and boxing skills, made Ruiz (41-6-1, 28 KOs) look foolish when he beat him in 2003 and he thought Toney did the same. "His hands were much too fast for Ruiz," Jones said. "He must have seen the way that I fought him and the way that I used my hand speed to beat him and did the same thing. There was no way that Ruiz was going to beat Toney. I thought it was a mismatch from the very beginning."

It was lopsided on the judges' scorecards. Tom Ackerman and Guy Jutras scored it 116-111 and Tom Schreck scored it 115-112. The Daily News scored it 116-111 for Toney. There was a knockdown in the seventh round that appeared to occur when Toney stepped on Ruiz's right foot and pushed him back with a punch. But it went in the books as a clean knockdown.

Just like Jones did two years ago, Toney has rid the heavyweight division of one of its ugliest practitioners. But unlike Jones, Toney does not expect to abandon the heavyweight division to move back down. Toney weighed 260 pounds before reporting to camp four weeks ago to train for this match. He managed to get down to 233 by the time of the weigh-in; on Saturday night he still looked like the Pillsbury Doughboy.

If he is to have any success against smaller heavyweights like IBF champ Chris Byrd, Toney will have to get himself in better shape or Byrd will chase him out of the ring. Toney has held titles as a middleweight, super middleweight and cruiserweight. But his home may be at heavyweight.

"I thought he should have gone from middleweight to heavyweight a long time ago," Jones said. "I don't know what he was doing fooling around at super middleweight or cruiserweight. He belongs at heavyweight."

Now that he is a heavyweight champion, and a fresh breeze in a stagnant division, doors will fly open for Toney. A bevy of heavyweights were on hand Saturday night to walk through the door, including Byrd, Hasim Rahman and Monte Barrett. At 36, Toney has a limited amount of time to make hay. "I'm ready to take over the heavyweight division," Toney said. "I'm looking for any challenge out there that will make me a lot of money."

This is what the heavyweight division has come down to: the most exciting match could pit two former middleweights, Toney and Byrd.

"Don King and Dan Goossen (Toney's co-promoters) have to sit down and see what's out there," said Kery Davis, HBO boxing czar. "I know that Toney has mentioned taking the winner of (Lamon) Brewster and (Andrew) Golota. There are a number of opportunities for Toney to go out and unify this division."

Toney could be a major draw for King and Goossen, who somehow finagled a No. 1 ranking for his fighter, who had only fought twice as a heavyweight before his match against Ruiz and who had missed 11 months in two years with two injuries (Achilles tear and biceps tear). "I'll fight a beast in his backyard," Toney said. "I will represent the heavyweight division well. I will fight any and all takers. I don't duck anyone."