I am a huge fan of James Toney both as a fearless, masterful, bad-ass warrior AND a surly, unintentionally hilarious boxing personality. However I feel he is a bit under appreciated considering his immense skills and glorious resume. Does his lack of discipline/training sour people on him perhaps? ( eating his way up the divisions ) I know there are shady PED allegations too but thats the case for seemingly every other fighter from the last few decades Maybe I've got it wrong but I just feel he isn't as revered as he ought to be. It's a shame Hopkins was too smart to fight James, we wouldn't have had to wait 20 years to see him get stopped. " I GOT MILK BABY "
As great and skilled as he was he could have been better. I don`t fault him for losing to Jones at `68. Roy was an uncommon talent. When he went to `75 he seemed to have los some fire at least in the ring. He came back nice later and beat Jirov and went to heavy. James Toney is one of my all time favorite boxers. His eating/discipline left a lot to be desired. I don`t see him stopping Hopkins. They would probably put us to sleep with a defensive exhibition.
I don't know how I feel about Toney. He moved around a lot and had mixed success. He has great moments but never looked like the man at any weight class. At MW he has the signature Nunn and McCallum wins, but was soundly beat by Tiberi and failed to unify. At Super MW he beat Barkley but of course got clowned by Jones and couldn't get pass Griffin. At Light Heavy he did nothing and lost to Griffin again. At Cruiser he lost to Thadzi but beat Jirov in another signature win. At HW he knocked out old Evander and became the second guy to move up and beat Ruiz, has a good performance against Peter, but never stood out as a top guy. One one hand, it's great he jumped from 160 to 200 and has signature wins at MW, SMW, Cruiser, and HW. But on the other hand, he looks look like a guy who struggled to find his place and never truly owned his surroundings.
He's a great talent. Great MW fighter with world class victories over world class opposition. Went on to campaign as a successful HW contender 60 pounds above his prime weight. Exceptional.
A great fighter. Yes he had faults as any fighter as but to do what he did and still be competing at heavy years after turning pro as a middle takes some doing. I found him entertaining at times and loved his old school style of fighting. He picked up a few losses along the way but I think he was a honest fighter, not in the mode of a la hoya. Tough guy, would have done well in any era.
Great fighter.He could have been more. The two losses against Griffin were cross road fights.Though I did not think he lost them
JT is one of my top 6 favorite fighters ever! The thing I fault him most for is not doing anything from 97-02 but I guess everyone goes through a rough patch in their lives. Hopkins vs toney would have been amazing