Some guys can have their careers end with only a handfull of fights, others can win a title, lose it and retire, and yet guys like James Toney and B-Hop can fight WAY WAY past their prime and stay competative? Will Toney and B-Hop suffer tremendous brain damage and physical injury, or are they just that good they can go through any pain?
Up until now, Toney and especially Hopkins have shown great defensive skills. Hopkins is defensive to the point of making some fights into stinkers. Probably Hopkins will fare well in retirement. But Toney is fighting well above his best fighting weight , and he tends to mix it up more than Hopkins. A natural middleweight taking heavyweight punches, James is starting to slow down in reaction time. His speech seems a bit thick, and he shows no sign of retirement. Unfortunatly, Toney will probably suffer from the effects of his career.
BHop started late and since the beginning of his career - he hasn't taken any punishment. No Brain Damage for him. James is already slurring his words. They both have very good defenses - which can go a long way - as we see.
i have always thought that heavy sparrign was the reason guys fall apart later in there careers. par example: terry norris: hard sparring in a ranch in texas/california. fighting heavies - bantams norris is shot to pieces by 30 unable to mix his punches up and slurring of his speech into his mid 20's virgil hill: almost no sparring only weight training, pads and the bags. still has his licence last fight was only a year ago and was givign a good accoutn of himself well into his 40's
No he didn't. You can barely make out a word he says now. Look at his interviews as a middle/super middle and there's a clear difference. He always trash talked but it's only in recent years that his speech has become slurred.
But some good and GREAT amateurs never make it at all...or a guy like Joe Lipsey goes 30-1 and quits forever after B-Hop KO's him....why?
To me, Toney's speech seems much worse now than after the Jirov fight. The pre-fight interview in the Oquendo fight on VS. was just SAD. He talked for about a minute and you can just barely understand what he's even talking about. The only thing that makes me think MAYBE I'm wrong is the fact that the famously over-protective Roach has continued to train him this long.
Toney is slurring like a mother ****er and really hasnt done much since his win over Ruiz, BHop takes care of himself and that is the key, its the work you put in away from the gym, Toney to be honest with you should just retire