Who was the better fighter: James Toney or Floyd Mayweather

Perhaps, but the fact is that several very interesting match-ups are missing from his prime years, like Eubank, Benn and Watson. A Nunn rematch would have been nice as well.

I'm not saying it's on him that these fights didn't happen, but neither is it necessarily on Floyd that every fight didn't happen or happened too late. That's boxing, unfortunately, and always has been.

And as for Toney's laziness, he didn't always fully convince even when in shape. I have him two losses, one win and one draw against his three best opponents. And my best guess is that he was in shape for all of those fights.

I love watching Toney, more than I like watching Floyd. But facts are facts. Toney's prime at MW and SMW doesn't really live up to the myth, neither in terms of performances or that he faced everyone out there (even though he faced three really good, even great, fighters).

 

Mayweather and Mayweather.

Toney fans might say he's a skilled counter puncher and they are correct, but Mayweather's counter right was excellent too, and he combined it with superior footwork. This really made opponents gun shy.

Toney could be hit much easier so for him sometimes the counter punch landed was revenge for being hit, with Mayweather if was a second price to pay after missing a punch.

 

Mayweather, who I do not like personally beat 4-6 likely hall of fame guys, and in some cases he was the older fighter.

It would have been nice if the Pacquaio fight was 5 years sooner, but I think both guys wanted to avoid each other, and judging on by how Morales boxing skills gave Pacquaio fits, I think Maywether would do a bit better and would have probably beaten Pacquaio had they fought 5 years ago.

 

His whole resume is full of bums and has beens

 

Do you mean Morales, or Marquez?

 

Well actually beating some of those guys might have helped Toneys argument.

He lost to Roy. Rahman and Peter were just garbage, as was Ruiz. And Holyfield was about 50 years old.

 

Please don't mention Calzaghe in the same sentence as Floyd.

 

That might be down to the toughness of his opponents rather than any lack of power Floyd may have had.

Marquez
Mosely
Hatton
Cotto
Maidana
De Le Hoya
Canelo
Guerrero

At the time of Floyd fighting these guys, only De La Hoya had been stopped by a Hopkins body shot and Cotto with the Margarito/Pacqiauo losses.

 

LOL .. I knew that was coming ..(ha)

 

I'm late to this thread but... this shouldn't even be a question. I despise Floyd, and Toney is one of my top 10 all time favorites, but Floyd was the better fighter.

There's no argument that can be made to support Toney being better.

Don't let hate cloud your objective judgement.

 

Youre confusing yourself. My statements are very simple.

-Floyd is in the top 20 when it comes to defense. Do you disagree? Even people who HATE Floyd acknowledge his defense is possibly the best of all time, thats not even a debate.

-Floyds ring generalship is also amongst the best. He is one of the best at making adjusdtment and knows how to win rounds. This is confusing and controversial to you?

-Floyd has one of the best right hand leads. Did i say he had one of the most "powerful" right hands of all time? No, you chose interpret my sentence that way. When i say "best" i mean in how useful it was. It had laserlike accuracy, good timing, good power, and he could is it as a counter punch. Theres more to judging a boxers punch than just power. The fact no one ever just absorbed one of floyds right hands and walked through it is a clear indicator he hits hard enough to get peoples respect. There is nothing confusing here.

 

I actually already agreed with most if what you wrote in my previous posts. I said Toney was better on the inside and the better aggressor in general.

Disagree on counter punching. Toney was brilliant but inconsistent. Floyd was always a consistentlt great counterpuncher. Again, Toney was more willing to go for it and threw more counters in a longer career, its a matter of quantity over quality and being consistent. I dont see Toneys counters being a "whole nother level" above floyds the way youd compare Alis footwork to Tex Cobbs.

I do agree that if Toney had dedicated himself to the sport and stayed in shape the way floyd did he could have been a top 10 ATG. Ridiculous natural talent, iron chin, high ring iq, fast learner, good hand speed, superb defense, good power, and skilled enough to go up nearly half the available weight classes and have success in each one. Other than discipline, you cant ask for more as a fan.

 

Actually he is a lot higher than top 20, arguably in top 3 .. glad you finally mention this Specifically in your analysis of why you think Floyd is great. Would have been nice to see this in your original analysis because this far and above why Floyd is an ATG.. your other Floyd "one of the best all time" statements , I'm still not buying .. But that is OK .. we can agree to disagree

 

Agreed, I only put Whitaker and Locche above Floyd defense wise.