I just watched James Toney vs Iran Barkley for the first time in 10 years. Amazing performance by James. Really showed his full bag of tricks here, with his beautiful defence opening up such a wide variety of punches. What are our thoughts on his performance? This content is protected
A great performance from Toney .OK , Barkley's not the most skilled fighter but he could bang and was as brave as they come , but James was superb here. Old school at its best .And both guys had respect for each other afterwards .
This is the best Toney has looked. Against a Barkley who came off impressive victories over Hearns and Horn. Toney just schooled him
Toney looks sublime, but I feel it's a little flattering... Barkley was still game and dangerous but his wars and mileage were very heavy at this point. Not shot, but a far ways away from his prime.
I think the Hearns rematch really diminished Barkley. He took a lot of punishment and had a few ribs broken.. Hagler and Barkley both went at Hearns aggressively and won, but they paid a big price. I think it diminished both after their fights with him.
They were at that age were you're even more prone to quickly accumulating damage and wear in the ring, and they just did the complete opposite of two aging, slowed down guys having a rematch. They just kept right on beating the **** out of each other. Supposedly Barkley was unrecognizable after the fight, with his entire face badly swollen.
This fight was like Hopkins vs Pavlik. The style all wrong for one fighter. JT was his best against pressure fighters.
Barkley was the perfect fit for Toney. Coming forward with wide swinging punches. This was probably Toney at his peak. Terrific skills and fantastic hand speed. He was significantly slower at LHW and above. I don't see much difference in Barkley compared to his other fights. He didn't look weaker or slower. He was always there to be hit, it was just that Toney landed hard and sharp punches and Iran just hit air in return. And while Toney was a sharp rather than devastating puncher at SMW, his power certainly was enough to get anyones attention. Not even Barkley could take them forever without getting anything in return.