Vitali may defeat Toney in one sided fashion now but he won't knock him out. You gotta respect history here, Toney has been around for 20 years and there is a reason why he has not been stopped so far. Toney has a strong believe in himself (like Whitaker had) and a lot of proud, very difficult task to knock out these guys.
History also proves that when a guy goes too far he can put his self in that situation and I personally believe Vitali has the tools to get it done against Toney.
i agree that vitali (besides a mercy stoppage) probably couldn't knock him out. wladimir on the other hand has the tools and the power to knock him out. if he puts enough left hooks and straight rights together, and doesn't play it safe, he can do it.
In the first fight the scores were 111-116 , 115-112 , 111-116 That two of the judges had it 8-4 in peter's favor seems pretty controversial to me. He threw 2-3 punch combinations but he literally landed flush in the single digits in most of the rounds.
I do agree two scores were way off, I had it very close for Peter. He did land a lot of punches, body punches, some to the head, to the shoulders...etc, point is he was active while Toney wasn't very active yet obviously more accurate. What made Peter also look better is whenever he landed something good enough he gained Toney's attention or stunned him, something Toney also lacked whenever he landed but of course can't be blamed for it. This all comes down to activity in that fight for me and who was more affective with his punches and Peter won in both.
Clean punching is an official judging criteria. Toney was doing all of the clean punching meanwhile Peter mostly landed his punches on the side and back (rabbit punches) of Toney's head. Toney landed very clean jabs throughout the entire bout and that against a taller opponent. it is just hard to ignore them. The first 6 rounds were close, then Toney took over.
Peter's punches mostly at the back?, disagree completely here. Peter also had a jab that he used against Toney even in the first fight which most of them did land and some in doubles. The reason why some of Peter's punches hit Toney at the side of the head or even back of the head is the way Toney twists his head down whenever Peter charges in with punches, those punches eventually go there and there's nothing he can do about them, it's Toney's fault as much as it's Peter's. Peter was more active in that fight and to whatever Toney threw he fired back right away, that's what made the difference for me. I do agree that it was closer than what two judges saw it but the fight was Peter's.
Vitali doesn't knock Toney out which is actually the worst case scenario for James. What he does is systematically punish James Toney for over 12 rounds of one sided action. At this point in their respective careers, Toney is way way past it in comparison to Vitali and the size, power and stamina all points towards Vitali. It wouldn't be pretty...and there are easier big money challenges out there for James at this point.
Why is this a topic? we all know Toney would'nt even take this fight, he also has a history for ducking fighters since his battering at the hands of RJJ, which also included a knockdown..... so if Jones could knockdown Toney, imagine what a 6ft 7 Klitchs could do, 1st or 2nd round KO, not that Toney would ever have the gump to fight either.
Well, scoring has always been subjective. I saw the fight countless times and to me, it was robbery. But like in every Toney fight, it is also about his style. People who do not respect Toney's style may very well agree with your scorecard.
Toney is so stuck in mud, even more so than Peter. And we saw how close Peter came to reaching 6'7 1/2 Klitschko... he didn't land a single significant punch during 8 rounds. And Toney, at 5'9" will be embarrassed even worse. Even the ultra-slow Rahman landed plenty of punches until he got butted. Has Toney ever beat a fighter over 6'3"? Sorry but at 5'9" you're just not going to beat either Klitschko, unless you have monstrous power, and even then it's one hell of a job, one that many underestimate. Did anyone see how hard it was for Tua to even just get in Lewis' range? And Lewis is 6'5, not 6'7 1/2. Plus it takes a lot away from the power to punch up that high. On top of everything else mentioned, both Klitschko's always ate up defensive fighters, stylewise. Byrd couldn't win a single round out of 17 against Wladimir, and won maybe two against Vitali. That injury is all James can hope for. Toney would've always lost, and lost badly, to either Klitschko, and he knew it, which is why he didn't take the fight. I think his corner would force a mercy stoppage to stop Toney from a one-sided beating somewhere around the 7th or 8th, in fact, i'd expect a fight very similar to that against Peter. I thought Peter won a close decision over Toney the first time, by the way.
Ok, so now James has a history of ducking people. How old are you? Obviously you have not been following boxing for the last 20 years.
I'd assume you can read the age in profiles... but no I haven't as I am 28... however, I have been for 15years... though hasn't Toney already ducked these two anyway, as someone mentioned early in this thread? Case and point.
Has Toney ever beaten a fighter over 6 ft.3 ? Yes he has, but no quality fighter. That is where the Thompson fight comes in. Toney must beat 6ft 5 top 10 contender Thompson in order to prove that he is a worthy opponent for Vitali. Toney did much better in the Rahman II fight where he was also at his lowest weight since 2003. I really think that the Rahman I fight is not a good example. Toney must improve his condition and get down to 220 for the Thomspson fight in order to prove that he is a worthy opponent. Byrd gave Vitali fits. Vitali had nothing but trouble with him before he quit. Toney and Byrd have a similar style.