I think Toney was superior at 168 than 160. The weight fit him better of course, but James had a good deal of struggles at 160. His best win at the weight is over Reggie Johnson in a close fight and was legitimately knocked down, but Johnson was an excellent fighter. In peak form he could only manage a draw against a faded McCallum, was far behind on the cards against Nunn before landing the punch when Nunn got lazy, got a gift against Dave Tiberi. At SMW Toney looked spectacular against Barkley and Williams and KTFO Tim Littles and looked superior at the weight than at 160 IMO. But that's beside the point, Toney would beat Eubank in a good tactical and close fight, at 160 and 168. Prime Eubank could certainly pull a win off, but Toney should be the favorite.
It was a great performance v Barkley, but this was a guy who had already been beaten by an elderly Duran, Nigel Benn and Michael Nunn amongst others. He was very competitive, but that was always a fight James should've won, irrespective of popular opinion at the time. There's not much in it I have to say, he was great at both 160 and 168 IMO, but to me the best James there was was the one who drew with (unjustly) then beat Mike McCallum. I know both fights were very close and that McCallum was getting on a bit, but he was by far the most skilled and difficult opponent James fought before RJJ, and (having only recently seen the fights) I was very impressed with JT's skills.
I didn't say disliked, I said didn't rate very highly. I don't care what he was like outside the ring (I actually loved his brashness in my younger days, went to a few of his UK fights), I base my opinion of his fighting quality on his... fights. Therefore, I see a guy who was stunning and spectacular beating poor (Robinson) to decent (Kelley) to pretty good (Bungu) opposition, but who was exposed as having very little skills or technique against a genuinely great fighter (MAB).
Definitely....Chris was given the belt holders decision in the first watson fight and admits he was only in the ring to survive against watson the second time.....that uppercut was his best shot ever thrown but it had tragic consequences unfortunately for Michael Watson
In the mid-late nineties he was exciting as hell to watch though!!! One punch power to be reckoned with p4p too.....but wasn't the most skillful ever and did get found out obviously
Boring fight between two counter punches but JT could put the pressure on when he wanted to. Eubanks had a big right hand and if he stunned Toney I could see a 1990-91 Eubank having the hunger to follow it up and stop Toney.
Additional: Watson only came wading ahead for that KO in the fateful final round against Eubank because he was terrified of being robbed once more. There is nothing in all of this that reflects poorly on Chris though, I just felt it was a real shame that a man's health had to be given over to a bad decision. That irks me the most about those two fights.
Tony's best win at 160 was against Michael Nunn. And he was taking over that fight before the knockout, Nunn was up by only two rounds at the time of the knockout.
Agreed. He was amazing to watch. I'd favour Pac, JMM, Morales or MAB to beat him any day, but he was indeed a viewer's dream. It was only 2 rounds, but his fight v Daniel Alicea was one of the most exciting I've saw in the flesh.
The trouble was Watson possibly wanted that victory/belt a little bit too much.....people said pre-fight he was pretty much obsessed Such a shame though and like you say no blame on Eubank's side....he's just been beaten to the floor himself 10 seconds before that uppercut
Exactly. The fact that Nunn was ahead is always overvalued on here. Toney was in control, he was never overly worried, never getting desperate. A guy like Toney can't burst a lung trying to win every round. He knew he'd beat Nunn. If only we all knew as much about boxing as JT, the guy is a born fighter.
My favourite Naz fight other than the Kelley fight was the Boom Boom Johnson fight.....this was the supposed 1st top US guy Naz had faced, despite Tom Johnson being close to shot......cracking action though