If Toney's in shape, motivated etc (a big ask), then it's 50-50. If he's weight drained, overweight or otherwise under-prepared (more likely), then Calzaghe is going to win unless Toney lands a Nunn Hail Mary shot.
no how can it be 50-50 if toney is on the ball? calzaghes inaccurate powdepuff misses versus toneys accurate heavy blows? its not rocket science. toney will literally re-instil the fantastically fake fear of flying back into gibbering joe.
only way this could actualy happen is if you fool Joe into thinking he is facing a 45 year old toney and not the prime 20something toney this thread refers to. Otherwsie, no way on earth does cowardly joe summon the guts to face JT. And so, by malicious lie we convince Calzaghe that we have lined up past it great 45 year old James Toney, upon hearing which Joe grins with joy telling his welsh fans that old toney is still prime despite him having no real titles and a string of recent defeats. And so on the night of the fight, Joe will climb into the ring LAUGHING and WHOOPING, expecting to get easily outboxed early on, but then later rally against a totally gassed JT using pitter patter misses for last gasp split decision over his flatlined opponent - at which point Joe plans to showboat-hump toney during his heart attack, then whoop with joy over his narrow ugly victory. IMAGINE THE LOOK OF HORROR on Joe's face then, when on the actual night of the fight, Joe sees prime James Toney striding towards the ring - Joes whooping grin turns to gibberingly sweaty howls of disbelieving fear as he tries to scarper for the exit. BUt there is nowhere to run. Watch then as Joe repeatedly tries to injure himself by ramming his head against the cornerposts so he can feign injury, pull out of the fight and instead go face tocker pudwill again next month.
Im not a big Calzaghe fan. Hes better than some think and not as good as his rabid fans think BUT his style would be poison for Toney. Toney had problems with slippery guys who had high output. If Toney could lose to Dave Tiberi based on nothing more than Tiberi's activity and pressure he can lose to Calzaghe who had all of that and more.
Have seen very little of Calzaghe, but my first feeling was that he would win with his speed and high volume punching. But then I remembered the Jirov fight...
But using one of the very worst versions of Toney is taking the easy way out, don't you think? My god, he looked spent in the second round in that one. When in shape he wasn't all that bad against high volume opponents. He arguably won the first McCallum fight and that was still a damn good Mike in there. Not at all fast, though. And he looked very impressive against Jirov. Didn't the ****ing HBO team have Jirov ahead going into the last round, though? That certainly makes their take on Calzaghe-Hopkins a bit suspect (but I haven't watched it, so won't comment on the decision). Sometimes their scoring is atrocious. I would say that at least that the common way of scoring would favor Calzaghe here. I think judges often reward ineffective aggression, but almost never defence. Don't understand that.
anyone who gets to world title level is an athlete. Seriously in sport, getting to world level, means you are an athlete. Geoff Capes is fat fella, hes still was an athlete, and of the highest order. so it seems you make no absolutely sense again. check out toney in his trim prime. that is an epic athlete.
Some people are inherently stupid, and some work hard to achieve stupidity. In your case I can't decide which one applies. In Toneys 21 months at S / Middle he beat Barkley, ( had the **** beaten out of him in 1 by Benn 3 years earlier ) a pile of ****, then Tim Littles, more ****, then loses to Jones. At 26 yrs 3 months he already has weight problems, then he is up and down in weight like a whores draws, and spends the rest of his career fighting for fringe titles ( IBU, WBU, IBA ) when he can. And you want to talk about him being an athlete in the same sentence as Calzaghe. Keep taking the pills.
Well now lets see. Benn fvcked Barkley inside a round, and he has shared a ring with Calzaghe ( albeit sparring ) Now whose evaluation should I respect most, Benn's, or yours? Hmmmmmmmmmmmmm tricky one.
oh wait you probably mean if joe fought them when barkely and benn were 40something. yes then he might win, of course, because that's the only way he fought n beat legends.
The Toney-Jirov was pretty darn close. I had it tied going into the last round with Toney only edging it after getting the knockdown. Jirov hit Toney with a lot of hard punches, missing many but still landing a lot.