People say that he's one of the best defensive boxers in history, however a lot of guys also say that the slurring of speech that he obviously displays when being interviewed nowadays is the result of a lot of punches to the head....:think How can a guy be one of the best defensive boxers in the sport and take so many punches to the head during his career at the same time????:?
The damage he took, was from LOTS of sparring. Sparring is the major cause of brain damage. Think about it, you get hit over and over with big gloves, you get an concussion you come back the next day to spar anyway. James Toney is that guy, he prob sparred more than any pro fighter out there.
Same Peter hit him very hard, that and all the other fights he's been in all these years has gotten to him.
Volume, dude's been fighting since like what the 80s? And only stopped fighting a few years ago, fought his way up from like middle weight to heavyweight. Iys like saying if ali and louis were so good why did they become so ******ed? Lots of hard sparring is going to send you ******ed. And you can't be great with out hard sparring because you won't be able to take hard punches.
the brain is a complicated thing, it can just take one punch in the right place to effect it really badly, effects probably wont show untill years later sometimes aswell, doesnt take away from the fact he was a great defensive fighter
They guy had 80 + fights and he sparred A LOT. Dude liked to spar,so when you multiply it it doesnt come out well + that he didnt take care of himself at all.
He was a great defensive fighter but when he started getting hit by heavyweights things changed, even if you block a heavyweights punch it will still rattle the crap out of your brain. (Toney started his career as a middleweight)
IMO its because hes a smaller guy (started a middleweight) and moved up to heavyweight. Once he was a heavyweight the punches got ALOT heavier. You factor in all the sparring and such as a heavyweight your looking at a lot of punches... Especially since the guy has been fighting PRO for 25 years. I think he was also a football player throughout all of highschool so yeah, not the best combination for brain health...
