Intriguing one, this. I like Dwight to outwork and outhustle Toney in a competitive one despite having to chomp on the occasional right hand. Qawi was a bit like a stronger, more aggressive incarnation of Toney in some ways and would probably know how to use this to limit Toney's effectiveness.
I am sure Dwight would outwork Toney for a UD win at Cruiserweight. By the way, nobody outclasses and takes to school a guy like Qawi. Dwight Muhammad fought guys like Michael Spinks, Evander Holyfield, Matthew Saad Muhammad and George Foreman - all of them bigger achievers than Toney. Other excellent guys he fought were the two Davis brothers, John and Eddie, James Scott, Jerry Martin and Mike Rossman. Tell me who outclassed Qawi during his prime?
Agree with the majority here. The Jirov/Toney fight was very close for just about no other reason then that Jirov was dogging Toney all night, very active. It reminded me of Calzaghe/Hopkin's, an extremely active fighter making a fight very close by simply being extremely active, against a older fighter that wasn't nearly as active as he used to be. Qawi is even more active then Jirov was that night, more then likely hits harder, just a better fighter in general, etc. Toney simply wasn't active enough at CW, and clean right hands or not he's just not going to be outworked.
Good match-up. I'm going with Qawi in a close one.. Toney doesn't have enough power or workrate to bother Qawi.
Beating Qawi in his prime required either a phenomenal work rate, including leg work over the distance, a la a young Holyfield, and/or perfect execution, like that of a peak Mike Spinks. Applied economy was definitely not the way to go about this, and Ike's skills are criminally underrated by some.