MASHANTUCKET, Conn. -- James Toney won the IBF cruiserweight title by beating Vassiliy Jirov on Saturday night, pounding the former champion from bell-to-bell to hand him his first professional loss.

The judges had the fight scored 117-109, 116-110, and 117-109 in Toney's favor, though most ringside observers thought it was in doubt heading into the final round.

With Jirov's nose bloodied and both fighters running out of gas after almost 12 rounds of toe-to-toe action, Toney landed a combination that sent Jirov to the canvas with less than 10 seconds left -- the only knockdown of the fight.

"That right hand was something terrible," Toney said. "It's like a Mack truck behind a 190-pound body."

Jirov also had a point deducted in the eighth for his second low blow.

Toney (66-4-2, 42 KOs) was the middleweight champion in the early 1990s and held the super middleweight belt before losing to Roy Jones Jr. in 1994.

"I've ben waiting a long time for James to wake up," trainer Freddie Roach said. "He really got motivated."

A native of Kazakhstan who lives in Phoenix, Jirov (31-1, 27 KOs) won a gold medal at the 1996 Olympics and was named the most outstanding boxer at the Atlanta Games. But he hadn't fought in 14 months, and it hurt him after 36 minutes of pounding.

"I hadn't fought in a long time," he said. "I'm going to go back to the gym and shake off the rust."

Jirov was hoping he could use his two cruiserweight titles to tempt Jones into the ring. Now that bait belongs to Toney.

Toney landed 47 percent of his punches, and half of the 590 power punches. Jirov attacked more, but landed less and did less damage to Toney's scowl.

Jirov put a left below Toney's belt in the third round, sending a thud through the Fox Theater at the Foxwoods Casino. Toney took a knee to gather himself, then came out punching.

Toney tagged Jirov at the end of the fourth, drawing blood from the champion's nose. At the end of sustained two-way punching to finish the fifth, the fighters glared at each other as they went back to their corners, a routine they repeated from then on.

Toney landed some body blows early in the seventh. In the eighth, referee Steve Smoger took a point away from Jirov for another low blow, though this one wasn't nearly as blatant as the other.

Toney landed a couple of good shots to the head in the 10th. In the 11th, Jirov bullrushed him into the ropes with a series of body shots and staggered him in the middle of the ring, but Smoger ruled that Toney slipped.

Both fighters appeared out of gas as they bobbed together against the ropes while saving their energy for a big blow.

Toney caused a stir at Thursday's news conference when he upended two tables in a screaming match with Jirov's cut man. On Friday, the two fighters had separate weigh-ins.

As a co-featured fight, Antonio Tarver (21-1, 17 KOs) easily beat Montell Griffin (44-4, 29 KOs) to win the IBF and WBC light heavyweight titles vacated when Jones decided to become a heavyweight.

All three judges gave the fight to Tarver, 120-106.

Tarver, the bronze medalist at 178 pounds in the 1996 Olympics, earned the first belts of his professional career. Griffin is the only man to have beaten Jones, who last month moved up to take the WBA heavyweight belt from John Ruiz.