H2H: Peak James Toney v Peak Joe Calzaghe

The Toney that fought Barkley, takes Joe apart and wins a punishing UD, if not a late TKO.

Because Toney is so fat, and so much of a joke now, people forget how good he used to be. He was at one point very possibly the P4P best, before a man named Roy came around.

Toney at his very best would give ANY middleweight in history a tough fight(except Jones), and would have beaten alot of others.

 

Toney was never P4P best. He was a very good fighter in his prime, but as good as he was at his set style, he was a tad limited to be honest, in that he didn't perform nearly as well against out-boxers and movers as he did come-forward fighters who played right into his stationary counter-punching style. I've always thought Toney was a tad overrated and would lose to the likes of Hopkins.

With Calzaghe, both have strengths on each other really, so it's harder to call. Joe leaves himself open a lot, which could lead to a lot of countering opportunities for Toney, but he also has a good jab and great footspeed, which could give Toney problems setting up on the in and out Calzaghe. His combos would more than likely land often(at least 1 or 2 of the flurry), while he may get countered nicely every now and then. But overall I just don't know if Toney has the footwork or the style to effectively beat the out-fighters, aside from the lazy Nunn who he happened to catch down the stretch in a fight he was trailing in.

I'd say it would be a closely contested fight though, Calzaghe outworking and taking Toney off his game, Toney landing the cleaner, harder shots. I'll take Joe by Close Decision. He may be overrated in the General Forum, but he gets underrated elsewhere, while Toney is almost universally overrated IMO.

 

Agree with that last post. Excellent analysis Pea.

 

Bump

 

Calzaghe wins

 

Calzaghe for me. Toney was best when counterpunching and making big hitters whiff air with their power shots. Calzaghe didn't load up much, dumped blisteringly fast combinations and was himself extremely slippery. Basically, while Toney would no doubt have his moments, I think Calzaghe's engine and workrate, coupled with a style that is not ideal for Toney, would see him win on points down the line.

 

Joe could outhustle Toney. He would have an advantage in quickness.

 

I've no idea who'd win but that'd be an absolutely phenomenal fight.

 

He was never slippery.

 

This content is protected

 

I knew that you’d come back with that.

What a joke.

He was never slick or slippery.

He had a lot of great attributes.

But his biggest flaw was his defence.

He was very hittable.

Always susceptible to right hands.

James would have had a Birthday with his right hand.

Many of Joe’s fans are delusional.

He wasn’t a Loma.

A Nunn.

A Pea.

He wasn’t a slick southpaw technician.

Yes, he could have beaten James. And especially if James had just turned up, gone through the motions and underestimated him.

But the smart money would have been on James.

He was far more technically skilled.

More experienced.

He fought better competition.

He was far more confident.

And he beat Nunn, Reggie and Jirov.

Joe never saw anybody as skilled as James in his entire career.

Joe did absolutely nothing in his career, to have been FAVOURED over a prime, motivated version of James.

There is no evidence to support him being favoured.

 

This content is protected

 

Brilliant.