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

If it was at all relevant yea but it wasn't. Toney underestimated a journeyman and probably blew the fight. Do you believe there's any way in hell Tiberi wins this fight if Toney took him seriously?

 

Yes? At that level in professional boxing these guys train for every single fight ready to go to war if need be, you don't underestimate anyone who goes through those ropes and enters the ring. He didn't underestimate ****, stop making excuses. The paisan gave him and old school italian ass whooping.

 

Using an absolute like this is as stupid as it gets. Watch the fight, Toney clearly hadn't given a **** about training beyond making the weight. He was completely gassed out by the end of the second round. This fight happened two months after the war with Mike McCallum. Look at how disastrous Kovalev looked vs Canelo with a longer training camp. It clearly makes a difference.

 

If your old enough to remember there were tons of stories going around about his lack of preparation and fast massive weight cuts and bloating between fights even though he was the most active champion in the sport by far. If you want to lie to yourself and believe Tiberi, literally a man who accomplished nothing in the sport, was truly good enough to beat a motivated all time great because he came close enough to warrant a conversation at a point in Toneys career where he was defending his titles 5+ times a year I have no time for you.

 

well he retired after the fight being so disheartened of the robbery

 

Yeah, that's the going myth.

The guy was offered massive money from Toney's camp for a rematch, and the IBF mandated it. He just didn't want it. Presumably because he knew Toney would kick his ass in a rematch.

 

Wow, I can’t believe it’s been that long. I was a huge Toney fan and this one was way closer than anyone expected. He frustrated me with his weight problems. If he had a good nutrition program and could keep his weight in check, he could have stayed at MW for longer and did great things. I remember the Jones fight because I lost money. James was such a good natural boxer, I don’t think he took opponents seriously. It was fun to watch but frustrating because he was special and could have been one of the best. His career was very good but weight problems usually meant he was a fat guy fighting much bigger guys. Thankfully he was skilled enough and had the right pharmacist on his side. Not judging, most of his opponents probably did the same thing. One of my favorite fighters.

 

Or he took the opportunity to walk away on the highest note of his career, which is coming pretty close to beating an unfocused james toney. I have not sympathy for someone who calls it quits when something doesn't go their way even if they got the short end of the stick. That's the heart of a loser not the heart of a champion. Either way the best case scenario was Tiberi gets a fluke (albeit deserved) SD win and then gets washed or violently KOd in an immediate rematch