Who was the better fighter: James Toney or Floyd Mayweather

Don't forget about Pep and his footwork.. I like Pep for his footwork, Whitaker for upper body movement, and Floyd for his blocking ability .. I'm surprised not to see other posters even mention Floyd's incredible blocking ability. Maybe I have missed them or I am on an island by myself on this.

 

Well, at least you know Calzaghe doesn't belong in the same stratosphere as Floyd.

 

Holyfield was only ranked that high because of past glories and because the division post Lewis was awful.

Doesn't matter, Rahman and Peter were still garbage.

The reason why Floyd fought nobody comparable in his prime is the same reason Jones never did either.

 

no butterbeen though

 

I agree. There's no good argument for Toney.
I don't even rate Floyd as highly as many here do but he achieved more than Toney and was just a better fighter.

 

Toneys big issue here is being a PED user,which removes some of his top scalps for sure. This puts him out of reach of Moneys acheivements, who has so far been proved drug-free.

 

Mayweather.

Like I said before regarding Toney. It's great he moved up in weight and all, and even found success against certain fighters. The issue is he was never dominant in any one division. He had a certain ceiling, and once he reached it, he would just jump to a new building instead of reach the next level.

 

Skillwise... at their peaks... Toney at 160 & 168, Floyd at super featherweight & lightweight... this is really close. People tend to forget how good Floyd was offensively at these lower weights. I'd say Toney was a slightly better counterpuncher tho, his transition from defense to offense is unmatched. Floyds footwork was better though. So we might call it even.

Legacy-wise I will go with Floyd. Toney took more risks, and has fought better opposition all in all, but he lost some of these fights. Floyd always found a way to win, and most often he made it look easy. Toney won some and lost some against the top guys (even if some were controversial losses), and lost a couple to mediocre opposition that he should never lost. Toney just sometimes coudln't find a way to win when he had a bad night, Floyd always did. Then there's the PEDs Toney got caught with - that hurts his legacy too. So even if I hate to say it, as Toney was a much more fan-friendly and ballsier fighter, an old-school fighter, while Floyds later career consisted mostly of safe matchups for him, Floyd has the better legacy. The argument that Toney was able to compete at so many weight-classes is a valid one, but Floyd did that too, even if it's easier to do at the lower weights.

 

Toney's world class opponents at his prime weights were Nunn, Johnson, McCallum, Barkley and Jones. He's 4-1-1 against, but most of the wins were hard fought while the loss was a shutout. He could easily been 2-3 against this comp with no claim of a robbery.

Floyd on the other hand totally dominated the best he fought at 130, even though he should have lost, or at best drawn, against Castillo. He didn't meet anyone of Jones's calibre, though.

 

Ringside media scored Floyd-Castillo for Floyd.

 

Mayweather

More talented and more dedicated

Mayweather is closer in talent and dedication to Jones, who was way ahead of Toney.

Toney was excellent at 160 lbs, but even there had a cople of nailbiters over Johnson and Tiberi (Lol.)

He was very good at 168 with the exciting 12 th round ko of Charles Williams, who was past prime and coming down from 175 lbs which had to affect him. And then Jones easily beat him. Toney Loyalists claim Toney was weakened by weight loss but he didn't have time to get out of shape as he fought Williams only a couple of months prior to facing Jones.

He was good at 175 lbs and 190 lbs. He was outhustled a few times and did beat Jirov. But, Jirov was overrated - a busy but face first guy, made to order for Toney's counterpunching style.

He was average at Heavyweight but beat a shot Holyfield and a mediocre Ruiz (ruled a No decision)

I am surprised anyone would pick Toney over the undefeated Mayweather.

Toney lost a bunch of times. Mayweather only had one nail biter, and got the decision.

 

Canelo was four divisions higher than Floyd's starting weight like heavy was for Toney but is objectively better than anyone Toney fought up there. Talking about odds is tricky bc Toney was the underdog against Holy bc Toney wasn't that highly regarded. I saw that outcome coming though so I always chalked those odds up to public perception being off.

Also, Toney stepped down from world level comp throughout his career whereas Floyd basically stayed at world level once he got there. For example, Toney fought fringe level or worse guys exclusively from 99-2002.