Nuthing and I mean nuthing trumps going from middleweight to heavyweight and winning the IBF middleweight, super middleweight, and cruiserweight ... and the WBA HW title ... he won a minor title at LHW but fought some good LHW contenders.
I love james toney, but this is a tough question as defending your title 20 times is really hard in any divsion. Plus Calzaghe stayed in shape and has yet to lose. Toney blew a few fights late in his career and was embarrassed in his prime. I still have to give the slight edge to Toney because he would've beat Ruiz regardless of the drugs and he was robbed in the 1st Sam Peter fight. Any former middle who can a win a heavyweight fight, let alone a title obvious is a tremendous talent as tough as they come.
It's unfair to criticise a man for getting in the ring with a prime RJJ though,imo (Personaly I always credit a fighter who made the effort, to make the fights, over those who didn't; no matter how badly they may have lost). That fight was just a real bad stylistic match up for Toney. Unless you're talking abut something else...
Calzaghe has only recently stepped up to decent world class competition. Toney has losses but that's due to him fighting great fighters. I'm gonna go with Lights out.
James Toney, it's not even close. Though, Toney's resume is more stacked with top names than most other active fighters also, his competition level is the most difficult of any active fighter. Toney's a solid ranked ATG.
Toney by a landslide. Especially when you consider that Calzaghe is 1-2 fights away from retiring and Toney is still somewhat of a contender.
There is a big difference between working your way up from Middle to Heavy to prove yourself and doing so because of an obesity problem.
Toney fought: Sam Peter x 2 Hasim Rahman x 2 John Ruiz Evander Holyfield Vasily Jirov Montell Griffin x2 Roy Jones Jr Iran Barkley Mike McCallum x3 Reggie Johnson Michael Nunn Not bad!
I am talking about the RJ fight and there is no shame to losing to fighter of that caliber. The only problem is that he was thoroughly whipped and it was fairly early in his career. Calzaghe has yet to look that bad against anyone and he deserves credit considering he's a 36 yr old supper middle and still on many p4p lists. I still think Toney has a better overall legacy, but I don't think it's a shoe in considering the guy still happens to be undefeated.
james toney man, it is not even comparable to joe calzaghe they a way too much apart in terms of legacy:bart
lost x2 draw + 1 controversial win no contest due to positive steroid test won by KO won by UD lost x2 got dominated won by TKO 2-0-1 SD won by TKO let's keep things in perspective