Wladimir Klitschko

James Toney won Saturday even though he fell out of the ring. By claiming an unimpressive, split-decision victory over heavyweight Fres Oquendo in the manner he did at Morongo Resort and Casino, however, Toney may also have fallen off the radar of heavyweight champions looking for their next opponent.

Every once in a while, a boxer pulls off an upset in a heavyweight championship fight and gamblers who prefer longshot bets get paid. It happened in 1990 when Buster Douglas entered the ring as an enormous underdog and defeated Mike Tyson for the heavyweight title. It happened in 1964 when Cassius Clay (who later changed his name to Muhammad Ali) "shocked the world" with his victory over heavily favored champion Sonny Liston. And Tony Thompson supporters hope that it happens again Saturday.

Wladimir Klitschko is one belt closer to being the undisputed heavyweight champion after an indisputably dominant victory Saturday night at New York's Madison Square Garden. Far too strong and much too long, Klitschko barely took a punch while winning a unanimous decision over Sultan Ibragimov, defending his International Boxing Federation title and claiming Ibragimov's World Boxing Organization belt in the first heavyweight unification fight in nearly nine years.

Wladimir Klitschko beat Lamon Brewster on a technical knockout after six rounds Saturday at Cologne, Germany, to successfully defend his International Boxing Federation and International Boxing Union heavyweight titles. Klitschko, who weighed 244 pounds, clearly dominated the first five rounds, making repeated contact with his strong left jab that largely went unanswered.

Wladimir Klitschko seemed intent on defending his heavyweight title with one hand, the left. He jabbed and jabbed and occasionally hooked Calvin Brock Saturday at Madison Square Garden. Then the IBF champion was cut by an inadvertent head butt, and the blood trickling down the left side of his face told him it was time to throw the right. When that hand entered the fight, it was time for Brock to leave it.

Wladimir Klitschko scored a unanimous decision over Samuel Peter on Saturday night in Atlantic City, N.J., despite being knocked down three times in a 12-round heavyweight brawl. Using his size and quickness, Klitschko dominated early and rallied late to hold off awkward, hard-hitting Peter. The fight looked to be Klitschko's early on but changed suddenly in the fifth round, when Peter knocked him down twice.

Wladimir Klitschko was knocked down and ended the fight bleeding on his stool. He looked anything but a winner, but the scorecards said otherwise. Klitschko won a split decision over DaVarryl Williamson after the heavyweight bout was stopped at the end of the fifth round because of a head butt Saturday night at Caesars Palace in Las Vegas. The ring doctor ruled Klitschko was bleeding too badly to continue, but the decision went to the ringside scorecards because the butt was unintentional.

Citing a series of possible irregularities, attorney Judd Burstein has asked the U.S. Attorney's office in Las Vegas to look into the upset loss by his client, heavyweight Wladimir Klitschko, to Lamon Brewster last month. After dominating the first four rounds of the fight at Las Vegas' Mandalay Bay Events Center, Klitschko suffered a knockdown in the fifth round and collapsed after the bell. Klitschko hit the canvas seemingly from exhaustion rather than from a blow by Brewster.

It was a dream Vitali Klitschko brought with him from Ukraine where he was raised, from Germany where he trained. It was a dream denied him a year ago by an ugly gash that split open his left eyelid and forced him out of a World Boxing Council title fight against champion Lennox Lewis, a fight Klitschko was winning on the judges' scorecards.

When Vitali Klitschko steps into the Staples Center ring tonight to fight for the vacant World Boxing Council heavyweight title, he will clearly have a size advantage over Corrie Sanders. At 6 feet 7, Klitschko is three inches taller. At 245 pounds, he is 10 pounds heavier, a disparity that might have grown since Thursday's weigh-in. At 32, Klitschko also is six years younger. End of story for Sanders? Not necessarily.