James "Lights Out" Toney, Mr Milk himself. Like the others I'll share my opinions of him after watching his key fights and a breakdown of his skills. A bit of an appreciation thread and I'll give you a list of 10 ATGs his size to see how people perceive him H2H. So let's get started James Toney, a 4 weight champion, an incredible defence and was involved in highly entertaining bouts. As an amateur he went 33-2 with 32 KOs Won the 1983 and 1984 West Michigan Junior Division Championship (156 lbs) Won the 1987 Novice Golden GlovesChampionship (156 lbs) Won the 1987 Michigan Silver Gloves Championship (156 lbs) Lost in the first round of the 1988 Detroit Golden Gloves Tournament (156 lbs) Won 1988 Ohio State Fair Championship (156 lbs) After starting his pro career weighing in at 160lbs in 1988, he ended it weighing 249lbs in 2017. He holds wins over Evander Holyfield Michael Nunn Mike McCallum 2* Charles Williams Iran Barkley Vassily Jirov Fres Oquendo He's probably a top 100pfp guy. He was a very active fighter in his prime, throwing loads of punches per round, he had an Excellent defence using his shoulder roll and footwork to slip and parry punches. He seemed to be susceptible to a good body attack against Jirov but showed an excellent chin at HW against Peter and Browne. He showed a very measured body attack against McCallum, Vassily Jirov and Michael Nunn. His straight right hand was very accurate and excellent when countering. His absolute peak was at 160 imo, he had much faster feet and genuine power at the weight, with an excellent boxing brain. He is very high on my list H2H, although I haven't made a proper list yet. Roy Jones Jr showed off his weaknesses, if you got him to react to a feint you could follow up with different attacks, but most weren't quick enough to do that. He didn't have a long stretch at 175, he could have as there was a thriving division around that time. His run at CW was good, better than HW imo.
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I'd say he lose to more experienced guys - Moore would out-Toney him and Ezzard was too good. Him vs Tunney would be interesting, but Tunney was fast and big enough to beat him probably. Fitz would likely KO him, though in 12 rounds fight it could be even fight. I think that he'd beat Hopkins and might be too cute and tough for Hagler, but it would be unbelievable fight.
He's lose to Charles, Moore, Tunney, Monzon and Hagler. Against Hopkins at 160 would be a 50-50 fight. Fitzsimmons was a beast in terms of punching power but Toney at his best I'd favour to win a 12 rounder. Burley ? I don't know. Burley has a remarkable record and beat better guys than Toney, but he also lost to lesser guys ... and I simply haven't seen enough of him to decide on that one.
He is 25th p4p on Boxrec. The only fighter on that list I would expect to win without question would be Archie Moore at light heavy. But Moore wouldn't be knocking out Toney even over 15 rounds. And he could easily get countered and clipped himself. Even the late 1950s Archie Moore. I think he is 50/50 Hagler and Monzon. He would win one and lose one between the two of them. I see him as favourite against Fitzsimmons and 50/50 against Tunney. Put it this way he didn't train hard and was binge eating junk food and was fighting as a fat 5 foot 9 middleweight and he knocked out Holyfield. And he was 235lbs and smashed Ruiz and drew Rahman. He was physically gifted, had very strong technique and was a tough as nails. No one would want to face a motivated in shape Toney.
Christ did you tag enough people Also the reason I favor him to beat Fitzsimmons is purely stylistically, I regard Fitz as the better fighter
He loses to Charles, Moore, Hagler and Monzon possibly to Tunney. He beats the others Burley is likely too small Toney fought in a generation of day before weigh in and he cut a lot of weight he'd be a good amount larger. Always though he'd beat Bernard. Fitz with the modern larger gloves and Toney mastering skills that were rarely seen in Fitz time I'd strongly favour James plus his chin is one of the best.
Toney is a classic example of talented but lazy. Put him in there in shape and motivated agaimst 95% of all fighters in history and he'd have at least a 30% chance, if not he'd at least be competitive.
Pretty much how I see it. I think he is as talented and tough as anyone that has ever stepped in the ring. The guy that has beat him the most in his career has been himself. Bill Miller basically said the same thing about him and he was very close to Ezzard Charles and a lot of other greats. One other thing to remember about Toney was he had practically no amauter background and became a world champion pretty early on in his career. Prior to boxing he was an amazing high school football player in Michigan that was being scouted heavily. He was a natural athlete that would have been the best at whatever sport he chose. Lucky for us, he chose the sport we love and he gave us some truly incredible moments.
Shockingly he chose boxing due to an inability to play well with others. My favorite fighter to watch. The night he wrecked Barkley he might have been best the 168lber ever.