They held a press conference in Moscow yesterday. The fight will take place on November 4. Toney looked in shape and seems already close to be close to the cruiserweight limit of 200 pounds. Toney did not have much to say, he bashed the Klit sisters once again and thanked Lebedev for the opportunity. IMO, this will be good style match up and an action packed fight. Even at 43, Toney will pull off a decision in my opinion. Lebedev basically has only beaten Huck who I think is only an average fighter. Check out these videos: [ame]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YD_Nmy1yaXw[/ame] [ame]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Cw1f-zI04jA[/ame]
Toney would normally beat Lebedev easily, but the weight loss is what concerns me about James. Otherwise it is not a hard fight for him. Even at his age.
Do not worry, James has taken off the weight very slowly. He has been training very hard since months now. Only thing that slightly worries me is ring rust. James needs a trainer now.-it is important to have a gameplan and work on technique against this caliber of opposition. I think Mustafa Mohammad would be choice no1 cause he trained James succesfully as a lightheavy. Another one could be McGirt who trained him for Reid. James needs good sparring partners now-southpaws.
How could anyone that follows boxing believe Toney has a chance in this fight? Toney hasnt had a decent performance in over 3 years and that was just a 3 round fight against a shot Rahman.
Where white Americans have an inferiority complex (and this also means there will never again be an American white HW champion) white Russians etc. have more of a superiority feeling (hence their dominance in the bigger divisions).... so Toney was clever to be very respectful at that press conference over there. Wise move.
Jones proved how weak the division is. Toney stands a chance but if he is anything like he was in his last fight...
Lebedev will win this. His management is pretty smart, he's just putting over the hill big names on his record. There's no way this Toney will KO or 'school' him, and that means Lebedev will win this fight 4 out of 5 times even when James does better as expected. When Toney has trouble making the weight he might even get stopped.
Toney will take Lebedev to school. Old school if you will. Toney will be infront of Lebedev all night long and KO him with counter shot at later rounds. :happy
I still cant actually believe Toney is going to make cruiserweight. He looks the best he's looked in ages but...the cruiserweight division just seems unlikely to me.
"Clinic"....James has the skills to cause Lebedev a lot of problems even at this age and stage of his career. They weight loss may be an issue but for some reason I think he'll operate a lot more efficently.