Was there any talks of this fight happening. Two huge names who fought in the same division for years. What prevented it from happening.
Toney on points. More speed, more power, more skills. The fight never happened because Bernard ducked Toney at cruiser in 2003.At middleweight, when Toney was leaving the division, Bernard was just starting.
Because Hopkins did not fight a legitimate contender for the first SEVERAL years of his title reign. Toney would have outclassed Hopkins at that point.
Shocker. Personally, I think that Hopkins has a better chance of taking him as he was more consistent at 160 and could fight 180 seconds a round.
I don't? The only boxing poster I had on my wall when training was James' KO centerfold. I just don't think he was that great at 160.
The stars never really aligned for this one, and I don't think either guy should face any charges of ducking here. Toney had already outgrown Middleweight and bagged a title at 168 before Hopkins had even contested one at 160. Around 1993/1994, Hopkins was just another fighter and wouldn't have been near the top of any fans' wish list for potential Toney opponents; guys such as Jones, McClellan, Benn etc. were all way ahead of Bernard in the pecking order for a showdown with Toney at that stage. Hopkins didn't really start to get any serious plaudits until around 1996/1997 when he made surprisingly easy and impressive work of guys like Lipsey and Johnson - and by this stage, Toney had already started campaigning between Light-Heavy and Cruiser. Hopkins was comfortable at Middleweight and harboured aims of eventually unifying the division - no reason at all to think he'd have any interest in a guy who was two or three weight classes above him and, at that time, seemingly drifting into relative obscurity such as Toney. In fact, Hopkins was STILL at 160 when Toney revived his career with that brilliant win and performance against Jirov at Cruiserweight, and was STILL there when Toney ate his way up to Heavy soon after. Anywhere between 2002-2003 I think it's probably fair to say that Hopkins was quite happy to skilfully manoeuvre his way out of a Jones rematch at a catchweight (which I have never believed he wanted and was glad he didn't have to take), and you can maybe question why he wasn't moving up to 168 or, at a stretch, 175 at a time when the Middleweight division had run badly dry of credible challengers...But I don't really see how he can be accused of avoiding a Toney fight. Just wasn't ever really on.
