Fight of the Week #7: James Toney Doubleheader (Nunn and McCallum)

Clearly, these are Toney's best career wins.

Nunn and McCallum were top notch.

Too bad, Toney got fat and unmotivated shortly thereafter.

 

Toney-Nunn: I thought Toney wore Nunn down with body shots and counter rights. I had Nunn up 2-3 points at the time of the stoppage. There is somehow a misconception that Nunn was winning every round and Toney was finding somewhere a lucky punch.

Toney - Mc Callum: I thought Toney won by about 2 points.A wider margin would also have been reasonable. I did not see a draw. There should have been no doubt after the final round where Mike was out on this feet. Toney landed many more hard punches in this fight.

 

I may have to focus on the Heavyweight ones (Ali-Norton) this week as I've got limited time.

Toney-McCallum 1 I've seen loads of times. A cracking two-way technical fight. I don't think I've ever scored it, so maybe I'll delve back into it just for that reason.

Nunn-Toney I've seen a few times too. Will try and watch it if I find time...

 

The Toney vs McCallum trilogy is one of my all time favorites. I watched the first one recently and still had Toney winning by a couple of rounds. With that said, a lot of rounds were close and tough to score.

I had Nunn comfortably ahead against JT going into the 11th round. One thing is for sure, Toney is hands down a first ballot Hall of Famer.

 

I forgot the first McCallum fight was scored a Draw.

I thought Toney should have gotten the decision

I thought Toney actually looked better in this fight than the second, but got the decision in that one. Then again, NcCallum looked better in the first fight, as well.

Both fights were chess matches as each preferred to counter than lead.

 

I scored it for Nunn through 10 rounds, 97-94, or 6-3-1 in rounds with Nunn winning 1,2,3,,4,6,7, and Toney winning 8,9,10, and I scored round 5 even. I prefer Toney's style of fighting but he fought the first 7 rounds like he was sleep walking. Nunn could hit him with a combination, then pivot and Toney wouldn't react, he'd still be facing where Nunn had been. It was like Toney was closing his eyes, but I'm sure he wasn't. Then Toney started to fight better but still seemed to pace himself like he wasn't confident in his conditioning. Apparently he knew what he was doing because Nunn seemed to get weaker around the 9th round, he was hurt at the end of the 10th, and then the knockout in the 11th.

IMO, it was a come from behind knockout because of Toney's slow start, but Toney had been winning the last 3 rounds prior to the knockout.

 

These are great and exciting fights, I'll rewatch and post my scorecards when I have time

 

Watching the ring walk of McCallum Toney now. Commentary says Mike was stripped of the WBA title, because in thier words they would not pay the WBA “extortion money”.

Not sure I remember (if I ever knew) why was he stripped? What was the reason and politics behind that.

 

I would agree. I know Roy Jones said the same thing about his fight with McCallum. He showed him tons of respect in that fight. It's a shame that the Body Snatcher missed out on those big paydays against Hagler, Hearns, Leonard and Duran. I think he would have done very well against those guys.

 

I’ll post my card in about an hour. But man that first round was fun and BUSY with a very high skill level. Both guys take the initiative in altering turns with the jab followed to the body. Both guys countering good when the other guy leads....good quality stuff.

Maybe my mind is confused with the next fights. I seem to remember Toney not being busy enough and taking rounds and parts of rounds off? Maybe it happens later I can’t remember...but very good start.

 

PhillyPhan, I think you remembered it about right, JT was younger, faster, and stronger and landed the bigger punches, but MM was busy all the way. MM fought a textbook fight, and I scored the fight for him - close at 7-5 or 115 - 113. Most of the rounds were close and I might have been influenced by MM's excellent boxing fundamentals and technique. I wouldn't argue with anybody who scored it for JT.

I gave MM 1,3,4,5,7,8,9, and I gave JT 2,6,10,11,12. JT's rounds were bigger with some big punches landed, MM's rounds were rounds were it looked like he controlled the pace and landed more punches. MM is one of those fighters who always fights with his feet perfectly spaced, his hands up, his elbows in, he looks better fighting than some look shadowboxing. The bad part for him is that JT had all of the physical advantages. Good fight.

 

Wow what an entertaining fight! I had forgotten and misremembered how good a scrap this was. Rounds 4 and 10 are well worth your time!
Ring generalship, defense, effective aggression are all about even leaving most judges and us to decide between the slightly higher punch rate (although 11-12 made them much closer) of Mike or the harder (imo) punches of James.

I have scored this a draw twice in the past, but this time had Toney 7-5. But I could see 9-3 Toney to 8-4 mike (and I think some could call rd 12 a 10-8 rd although I wouldn’t..but that should be CLEAR) and think they were fair cards as well. Even though I had Toney 1 rd up I think a draw is a fair and just verdict.

Rd 1 McCallum 10-9
Rd 2 Toney 10-9 (19-19)
Rd 3 Toney 10-9 (Toney 29-28)
Rd 4 Toney 10-9 (Toney 39-37)
Rd 5 McCallum 10-9 (Toney 48-47)
Rd 6 McCallum 10-9 (57-57)
Rd 7 McCallum 10-9 (McCallum 67-66)
Rd 8 Toney 10-9 (76-76)
Rd 9 McCallum 10-9 (McCallum 86-85)
Rd 10 Toney 10-9 (95-95)
Rd 11 Toney 10-9 (Toney 105-104)
Rd 12 Toney 10-9 (Toney 115-113)

 

@Pat M I don’t think we are far off from each other even with opposite cards. We agreed:
McCallum 1-5-7-9
Toney 2-10-11-12

Leaving us with 4 swing rounds where:
You favored mike 3-1
I favored Toney 3-1

Rds 3-4-8 you went Mike I have a mark that 3 & 4 were ultra close but I did have a mark that 8 was clear fir Toney....maybe I left the wrong Mark lol, but that is the only rd I see where we differ majorly.

Rd 6 you went Toney I went Mike but again marked it ultra close.

It will be interesting to see some other cards, because I feel there can and will be a lot of variance. Higher punch rate or harder punches...I almost gave 10 or 11 can’t remember already lol (I think it was 10?) to mike based on his jab alone...I just thought Toney was landing the more telling blows