What a grueling war between the then cruiserweight champ and the new heavyweight champ Toney Not many could've stood up to the onslaught brought on by Jirov, but the tough,iron chinned, old school warrior Toney took it and came out victorious. I ponder if those 250 shots Jirov bounced off of Toney took alot out of him and was the pivotal turning point in his decline. Yes, he went on to do great things, butno one really busted him up like that proceeding that fight. Was that the battle that changed him forever?
Definitely not. If anything, it ruined Jirov. Toney moved up to dominate aging Holyfield in one of his best performances in career. Bad eating habits and laziness at HW after that win over Holy were the things that ruined Toney.
The only fighter ruined by that fight was Jirov. Toney took Jirov's soul away and its been lost ever since.
I watch that fight about once a month, I am starting a youtube channel and my very first video will be about that fight. Jirov has THE WORST CORNER in history of boxing. Jirov threw an insane number of punches every round. He would inevitably go to his corner only to hear "You gotta beat on this guy". Round after round after round. All they told him was to fight harder. Not a single helpful thing was said to him. Basically they said we dont know what we are doing so you need to go harder. It annoys me greatly.
If any fight could be said to have destroyed Toney it was the second Peter one. He took a hellacious beating worse than any he'd ever taken in his career and never got a top win again.
No Jirov was the one who was never the same after taking a horrific beating for 12 and almost getting KO'd in the last round. I never understood why people thought it was a close fight, Toney beat Jirov's ass.
It actually ruined Jirov. Toney went on be a contender at heavyweight and arguably even won the WBA belt.Jirov was pretty much finished after the fight. Toney's speech detiorated after the Peter fight. Too much rabbit punching
Clocking more rounds sparring than any boxer in history, whilst foregoing any conventional training ruined The Boxing Master and Pugilistic Extraordinaire James Toney, Peter 2 contributed too. That and the aforementioned KFC. Slurred though his speech is, James was never the most coherent sounding guy anyway. "UNDESTRUCTABLE"