in 2005 Toney popped for Steroids, 2006 draw against Rachman. 2006 lost to Sam Peter 2007 lost to Sam Peter. Toney never won a meaningful fight after Holyfield in 2003.. Combine that with being caught with steroids in that same fight period there never was a reason to fight him.
Toney has an easy style for Vitaly he would literally stay on the outside and embarrass him just like Peter did.
Byrd walked him down. Vitali had issues against sklicksters.Against Peter that was the older fatter version of Toney and Toney still outboxed him, the decision was BS.I am not saying Toney would win but he would have given him more issues than some of the bums Vitali fought.Vitali actually ducked Toney for years.
Most of the brothers fights were shown live on a Saturday night on UK tv. Overall memory is, in the other corner, stood an American opponent, with varied ambition. Plenty of patented Ali brash talk before getting stopped, or going into their shell. Briggs, Kingpin, Chambers, Tony the Tiger etc. It was all so, so, tedious, apart from a dynamic South African, suddenly exploding, one night!
Toney was offered $1.5 million to fight Wlad at some point which he declined as a "low-ball offer". The rest is history.
Nope, just google it, there's a bunch of old articles talking about Klitschko's 1.5 million offer to Toney which was rejected as "too low": Could it be that upon viewing the fight with Byrd, Toney does not fancy his chances against the 6ft 5 Klitschko? Not so, says trainer Freddy Roach. "Well I wouldn't fight Wladimir Klitschko for 1.5 million dollars", Roach told Secondsout flatly. "That's not enough money to fight a guy like that for the world championship. For the right price he will fight the right guy. I know he is the mandatory for the winner of the Rahman fight, and maybe he'll get better paid for that," he said of Toney's proposed world title rematch. And to be fair, this is a good point from camp Toney. Klitschko is probably the most dangerous heavyweight out there, and after all of Toney's training expenses, he would only walk away with a few hundred thousand. For the biggest fight of his life, that is not nearly enough motivation for a man of Toney's age and stature in the game.
Ok but then let's be fair and tell the whole story here. That was cheap money, it would not have been a good business decision for Toney. Actually, the Toney-Wlad was scheduled when Toney was around 40. Then, the fight was called off because the IBF pulled some BS because Toney was not ranked. I do not think it was Wlad or Toney's fault. Toney still wanted the fight however it was Wlad who did not want to fight in a non-title bout!!! Let's be objective here, I think on neither occasions one fighter ducked the other, they were understantable business decisions. Now, if that fight would have happened, I think Wlad would have been a heavy favourite to win it on points, even against an in shape Toney. However, I was referring to Vitali, who was more clumsy and less polished techncially. Vitali had issues against slickster berfore and did not hit as hard as Wlad. I think it is fair to say that Toney would have given him issues. Vitali never was in a hurry to fight Toney. He fought bums instead. The Klits were very clever so they wanted Wlad to face Toney because he matched better up stylistically to Toney.Just as Vitali did the job for Wlad with Sanders because he matched better up stylistically to Sanders with his better chin.
Blade, you and I had this exact discussion before, years ago. Let's look at it historically now: Toney is broke today. Wouldn't it have been smarter to have taken the fight and collect the purse?
Byrd walked Vitali down.Vitali had issues against slicksters. I highly doubt that scenario would happen
Well Holyfield May have had a chance but he lost to Ibrigamov. Wlad then dominated Ibrigamov. It would of been ugly for Holyfield. Michael Moorer also May have had a chance but he lost to Castillo that Wlad quickly dispatched in 4 rounds. Likewise it would of been ugly for Moorer. Tyson May have had a fight with Vitali had he not lost to Williams. Had that fight occurred Tyson would of been dangerous for a round but Vitali was far too durable and likely stops Tyson late. At the point of time of the Rise of the K brothers the famous American Heavys of the 80s and 90s were winding down. The names would of looked nice on the resume but truth be told the K brothers fought and beat the men who were beating these guys at this point in their career.
