29 years ago today: James Nathaniel "Lights Out" Toney vs. David Stephen "TNT" Tiberi

IB, I scored this in December and its been posted on the scorecard thread since then. I finally scored it after all these years after watching it. I was never bothered until December because I never had a horse in this race. Always disliked Toney, but I call them the way I see them and to tell you the truth, you and I are almost exact in our scores. Here is what I wrote:

James Toney v Dave Tiberi

Round 1: 10-9 Toney
Round 2: 10-9 Tiberi
Round 3: 10-9 Tiberi
Round 4: 10-10 Even
Round 5: 10-9 Tiberi
Round 6: 10-8 Toney (Tiberi penalized 1 point for a low blow)
Round 7: 10-9 Tiberi
Round 8: 10-9 Tiberi
Round 9: 10-10 Even
Round 10: 10-9 Toney
Round 11: 10-9 Toney
Round 12: 10-9 Toney

Total: 115-114 Toney (actual scores: 117-111 Tiberi, 115-111 Toney and a 115-112 for Toney for a split decision win).

Nothing I say can be better than how @salsanchezfan phrased it when he said, "but acknowleged there is a question to be answered about aggression vs. sharper punching that only the individual watching it can answer for themselves." I thought that was so apt and right on the money. Tiberi was a workhorse, but the exhausted Toney kept getting off the cleaner, more meaningful punches, just not as many, which puts the onus on the judge. I have seen so many diverse opinions on this fight. Who's to say who is right or wrong?

 

At the time I remember reading a column in one of the magazines about this fight and the scoring. The writer had seen the fight from ringside and thought that Toney had clearly won the fight; he was impressed that Tiberi had lasted 12 because, he wrote, Toney had land some hellacious body punches.
He wrote that when he watched the fight on tape later, after hearing of the controversy, he saw the fight much differently than he had from ringside. Had I known then that it would matter 30 years later, I'd have kept that magazine.

It is worth noting that Tiberi turned down half a million and a rematch in 90 days, saying that he would be physically unable to fight in 90 days, and I don't believe that he ever fought again.

 

Histrionics? Pot kettle much? LOL.

 

Toney was gasping for air after just 3 rounds! He was in bad condition.

 

Toney beat Thadzi in my opinion. And Griffin twice. A guy like Floyd got those decisions all the time. Toney was not well managed around that time-. That is really rare for a fighter of his caliber. His attitude did offend a lot of people back then, he was not going to get any favour. Talked too much trash and came into fights not in top shape. Honestly, it is rare to see such a top fighter losing such close fights to then nobodies, fights he should have won. The majority here is talking about those fights but they did not really see them and score them.

There is a stronger case for Tiberi beating Toney than Thadzi or Griffin, that is for sure.

 

I have trouble watching this fight because Toney was in such bad condition, gasping for air after a few rounds. Toney did beat more skilled busy pressure fighters than Tiberi in his career, so the fight is not really meaningful. If Tiberi won it, it was on pure volume because Toney was a dead man. I will try to rewatch the next days. I remember Toney landing the cleaner shots but he was so damned exhausted, the whole thing was hard to watch.

 

Toney got a gift. I gave Tiberi the 11th and 12th. 12 clearly. James had nothing on his punches, his body language was awful and he was pushed to the ropes repeatedly by Tiberi. I did give Toney the 10th on some big right hands.