Bernard Hopkins vs James Toney: Why did this fight never happen?

That's not true, Mark.

When Toney was the IBF Middleweight Champion, Hopkins was his #1 contender.

And, like today, you can post all the Ring ratings you like, but boxers don't fight opponents based on Ring ratings. They don't now. They didn't then. If you were the IBF champ, unless you were unifying, you fought IBF challengers.

That's just how it goes.

Look at the IBF ratings to see how close they were. You don't get much closer than CHAMP and #1 Contender.

 

The IBF Top 10 from October 1992 just before Toney moved up to super middleweight was pretty loaded.

1. Bernard Hopkins
2. Roy Jones
3. Mike McCallum
4. Lamar Parks
5. Sumbu Kalambay

8. Steve Collins
10. Herol Graham

Too bad Toney couldn't make weight anymore. That could've been a much more entertaining division if he'd stuck around and faced some of them.

https://ibb.co/1Qpx3zk

 

Being somewhat of a Hopkins fanboy, I like Bernard in a prime vs prime fantasy matchup.

Funny, I remember when there was some talk of them actually fighting, Toney said "they call Bernard old-school, but I call him old fool!".

 

When Toney was champ, B-hop was hardly known, do you really think B-hop was the second best middle in the early 90`s?

 

B-hop hadn`t beat a top 10 fighter by that stage.

 

Hopkins was the IBF #1 contender when Toney was the IBF champ, Mark. I just posted the ratings.

That's who Toney had to fight if he remained at middleweight. But he moved up, instead.

And Hopkins and Jones, the top two contenders fought for the vacant belt.

 

Didn't he also accuse Hopkin's mother of being a billy goat because Hopkins headbutted so much? Lol, good ol Toney.

 

LOL I didn't remember that one! As someone mentioned earlier, can you imagine the trash talk leading up to the fight?

 

At the time Hopkins was just another N°1 contender and had not beaten anybody of note. James had a history of making weight at 160 and HBO had already laid out the plan for him to face 3-division champ Iran Barkley. That is why