When did Toneys excellent defensive skills...

i think his defensive skills improved over time through experience and slower competition

 

When the steroids started working in his blood...

 

(just joking)

 

Excellent point! Toney has problems dealing with speed.


Also, for being a defensive master he sure gets hit an awful lot!

 

He took more chances at lower weights because his power was evident. He could do damage.

But as he rose up in weight it'd be dumb to attack when you could use your opponents weight against him. That's why as he got older and higher in weight, you saw the right hand counter alot more.

 

I guess you never saw his 160 pound bout with Mike McCallum. Maybe one of the most defensively skillful fights of all-time. Toney was at an incredibly high level by that point.

You are right about some of his other performances at 160, but I think a lot of that was due to simply being drained at the weight and having a lot less energy. Even when he knocked out Nunn to win the title, he nearly passed out from exhaustion after the fight.

Toney at 168 had more energy in a lot of those fights and was a wizard--witness his deconstruction of Iran Barkley and even the 11 1/2 rounds of infighting with Charles Williams was defensive subtelty at its finest.

Then came the weight issues against Jones and well...it sort of came apart again. So much of Toney's quality of performance depended on how much he had to dry himself out to make weight in those early years.

 

James Toney is just freaking awesome thats all there is to it!

(sorry I didn't really contribute to this thread at all)

 

Toney's defensive skill at 160 was more good reflexes but he was stil a solid defensive fighter. He made Nunn miss at times during there fight.

 

It's ok, you like brett favre, we understand.

 

Toney's defense is hugely overrated. Toney was good at taking shots and setting traps to counter effectively, but he was far from unhittable, even at his peak.

 

You can't make a guy miss like Pernell did when you're standing toe to toe, Toney did get hit but he didn't get hit flush very often. That's what the critics aren't mentioning

 

his defense has always been there, i've watched his first few fights against solid journey men and he had great defense.

a true student/master of the art of boxing!

 

Toney needed more defense the higher in weight he rose. Opponents carried a bigger punch with each new division.

 

No one said he was unhittable, but he was pretty difficult to hit flush. There are fighter's who were very good defensive fighter's but got hit like Hagler(in his prime) and Ray Leonard. Toney's apart of that group. He was no Pernell or Mayweather but he was hard to hit. Like I said before Michael Nunn even had some problems hitting him.