Fantasy Fight: James Toney vs Andre Ward who would have won prime for prime?

While Toney had close fights with excellent fighters like Nunn, Reggie and Mc Callum, it should be obvious to everyone that James peaked at 168. He was a more complete fighter at that weight and more comfortable.He displayed his career best performances against Barkley and Littles

 

Don't know if Johnson was faster than Ward or had higher volume. But both gave angles, came in and out. And Toney had a seemingly harder time against them than the guys that would stand and trade with him.

 

I'd call Kove one-dimensional rather than basic. What he did, he did damned well.

 

Swarmers with a high ring IQ don't come around very often. Ward had to turn semi-swarmer in the rematch after realizing Kovalev was to hard to beat in a straight up boxing match.
Even with new adjustments , Ward still lost the first 4 rounds for trying and failing to get to Kovalev. Cutting the distance on Kovalev was extremely hard.

He's also anything but basic. Basic fighters don't have an awkward rhythm and hard to time 1-2s. Krusher would often throw a 1-2 and follow it up with an unexpected 2-1.
Those punches were also thrown with punishing force so you have to be able to fight a near perfect fight full of dynamic movement and upper body movement like Ward implemented.

If Barkley fought Krusher , he'd get battered worse than Jean Pascal.

 

Every thing Kov threw came straight as an arrow. Rarely throws hooks or uppercuts. He did have a very good sense of timing and feinted well. He's too big for Barkley and is slightly more skilled.

 

He could put a curve on those straight shots though. He had a pretty decent left hook too

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I think Iran stops Kovalev.The thing with Kovalev is he can’t fight on the inside.Barkley would put that pressure on him and get on the inside.That being Iran from Hearns 2

 

I have no doubt in my mind that Kovalev would run through Iran like he was nothing.

Iran was too slow , to rudimentary and too sloppy and worst of all ..easy to hit.

 

It is a matter of styles.Kovalev with his low hands, inability to fight on the inside and to deal with that high pressure style of Iran.Kovalev is a bully but Iran would not be intimated by him in the least.He would rip body shots on the inside and then come up the head

 

Not a single body shot. Not one.

 

It's possible but you a little biased here.

 

I saw body shots before i time stamped the video. Kovalev knocked Cedrick Agnew out with a punch to the mid-sector.

 

Just watched the whole thing. Opponent was terrible. No head movement at all. Looked shell shocked from the jump and let Kov do whatever he wanted. Very upright too.

 

Reggie was faster than Andre.

I'm still hoping we'll see Andre again.

 

I don't really. Three years away and in his mid 30's... If he still was in his prime I'd like to see him against Beterbiev et al, but not now.