Heavyweight Toney - Was He Good, Or? .

Yes. The division was that bad.
Also an indication of how far past his best Holyfield was.

 

Toney had skills that transferred up in weight without question ; his defense and his chin and his overall slippery style but he also did not meet top men style wise that would have beaten him more decisively like either Klitschko ... still no doubt James would have fought them .. Toney had terrific confidence ..

 

Toney would have been better at heavy if he hadn't tried to bulk up. When he first started talking about it in the early 90s he talked about his advantage in speed of hand and foot. I was disappointed when he came in at 218 against Holyfield, but he took him apart. Evander was the most honest commentator about that fight when he said that he couldn't hit Toney and would never have been able to beat him.
Toney should have kept his weight around 200 pounds, which I think is about what he weighed when he played football. I wonder if he got complacent; he was fighting much taller guys with longer arms and, if he just stood there, the big dummies would come to him. That's a lot easier than chasing them down.

 

Quite good for his era - pretty remarkable for a middleweight.

 

I think the version who fought Vassily Jirov was about perfect for his heavyweight expedition and I’d liked to have seen James Toney against some of the heavyweights today.

 

However, someone who is originally a middleweight and has a win over Holyfield is at least good enough. I know Holyfield was ancient back then, but 5 years after that he had quite a nice fight with Valuev.

 

I love Toney but the division sucked the worst that it every sucked, and he was on roids. Hei heavyweight work is probably best forgotten.

The irony being, he had quit the cigars and got his fat ass in shape, he probably would not have needed the PEDs.