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

That is a by product of Jirovs style. IDC how good you are on D. 90 punches a round makes it impossible to avoid them all. Toney never got dropped.

 

In his prime Toney definitely had more hand speed than Ward

 

I believe James to be the better fighter and obviously had a better chin. But he was a wee bit inconsistent and you never knew which version would show up. Gun to the head, the best version of James at 175 beats any version of Andre

 

Wasn't Toney v Jirov at cruiser?

 

Toney everyday and twice on Sundays, at any weight. He got milk, baby!

 

It's not apples to apples. Jirov is a prototypical swarmer that throws a lot of punches. His game plan was to overwhelm toney with volume.

Kovalev is a boxer puncher that looks to land power shots not volume like Jirov. Compare the two is just dumb.

 

Their jabs were different, but Mike might have had the most educated jabbing I've ever seen. Over the years, I've often tried to emulate how he continuously rips out double, triple jabs while stepping around his opponent and keeping defensively responsible. So, so hard. The hardest thing I've ever tried in the ring.

 

Yeah, I wouldn't argue against that. Ward had good hand speed, but Toney's hand speed at MW and SMW was just wicked. Perhaps he was at his fastest at 168.

 

Both had their prime at 168. https://i.imgur.com/K9ZhtPm.mp4
https://i.imgur.com/MiwlIgd.mp4
To my eye sir you are very much wrong about their speed.

 

This gets me to think about the Dawson fight again... Dawson wasn't at his best at 168 at that time and maybe he had prepared poorly but the way Ward just took a part a tricky southpaw who had been the first to clearly beat Hopkins since Jones... Ward at his absolute peak.

 

I think Andre vs Griffin would have been an intriguing fight.

I too am a huge fan of Andre's victories over Kovalev. Especially as he'd been inactive and he'd moved up to face a monster puncher.

James' win over Nunn was great though. Nunn was a very fast southpaw with great speed and a big reach. A very hard puzzle to solve.

 

James eats him alive. I'm an admitted Toney nuthugger, but I honestly can't see it any other way.

 

Dawson? Maybe. Ward certainly did.

 

James eats Ward alive. 9-3.