Break it down. Hopkins had many more defenses at Middleweight. Was better at Light Heavy where James was pretty much a bust. Toney took titles at Super Middleweight and Cruiserweight. It is tough to call depends on whether you like quality like defenses or quantity like titles. Toney is 11-1-2 in title fights.
Hopkins- More disciplined had a great run for 10 years without losing at Middleweight, and Toney let himself get fat and was lazier and had to resort to Steriods:-( bhop was better..:deal
It could get worse. Remember Tiberi kicked his tail but ended up losing. Gotta go by the judges score cards.
Are you implying that the talk btwn. them fighting was not on the table? This is an partial interview with James Toney Does it amuse you that you were close to fighting Bernard Hopkins at one point in 2003, he backed out, now he is fighting a smaller man in De La Hoya. Toney: Nothing surprises me with Bernard. I never expected him to fight me, I knew he would back down like a coward. Bernard is one of the biggest sh*t talkers in boxing. He talks sh*t like he's gangsta but if we met up in the hood he would be f*cking laid out on a sidewalk.
Hopkins wanted to stay at middleweight in order to make history and reach 20 title defenses. It wasn't logical to move up to cruiserweight to fight Toney when he could make even more money facing Oscar De La Hoya. Does that make him a coward? Absolutely not. Does it make him smart from a business standpoint? Yes. Toney can say what he wants about meeting up in the hood, but if they met up in the ring at middleweight, Bernard's movement would have given Toney hell because Toney always preferred to stay in the pocket and counter.
what toney did at cruiser and heavyweigfht is totally irrelevent when anylysing a hopkins v toney fight. fight would be between a middelweight /super middle /max light heavy. toney fighting heavies means he is a better fighter ????? everett big foot martin was a light heavy /super midddle that moved up to heavy like toney and hardly ever got stopped as was chris byrd as was bruce the mouse the strauss toney had a parallel whose name i just cannot remember in the 80`s fat little man who moved up to heavy and fought and hanged tough with a who`s who of heavies. watch toney get outboxed by nunn /watch toney get outhustled by tiberi/ watch toney in a life and death v johnson having to get of the deck/watch toney be lackluster v thadzi/in fact watch huge ammounts of toney from middle to light heavy fightrs and watch toney just go through the motions rolls of fat hanging off even at light heavy having to fight in spurts because his conditioning did not allow him to fight hard for 3 mins a round. IMO as pointed out by some of the older more experienced posters who actually were around through both fighters whole careers prime hopkins was nothing like the 43 year old hopkins. IMO hopkins is just the kind of fighter 160/168/175 to give toney fits. watch toney fight say a wild/non skilled pressure fighter in his prime like tiberi and then watch a skilled /way more rounded hopkins fight in a pressure non stop letting his hands go style v johnson /replace tiberi with hopkins and tell me who wins.
Now here I'm simply having a debate and this is the kind of comment that has to be made? Look Muther F nothing I said was idiotic. The waste is your bowel movement statement! Chimp!
Nothing about my post was or is idiotic idiot! (1) James Toney threw better combinations. (2) James Toney defense was superior to Hopkins. If your going say that he's not, then prove it! (3) James Toney fought the better opposition. If he didn't prove it! (4) James Toney fought in several different weight classes and and won titles in each one. hopkins fought in one weight class and the middleweight division was full of sub-par comptetition; how else could someone like hakkar become a mandatory? Unless your willing to debate you get the Phuck out and go open up another can of vienna saugages and wedge them where the sun don't shine.
Hopkins, Toney debate whose neighborhood was tougherNow that the James Toney-Bernard Hopkins fight has been made, the rhetoric between the street-wise champions figures to fly as much as the punches eventually will. (The fight will be on HBO pay-per-view on Aug. 9, probably at Las Vegas' Mandalay Bay.) Sure, sure, Toney (66-4-2, 42 KOs), the IBF cruiserweight champ, and Hopkins (42-2-1, 31 KOs), the undisputed middleweight titlist who will pack on more than a few pounds in order to challenge Toney, now have lifestyles of the rich and famous. But their roots are firmly sunk into the inner-city concrete from which they sprang, and they already are engaging in a classic case of verbal one-upmanship. Today's debate topic: My old 'hood is tougher than yours. So is the above not true?
people always think toney has done more than he actually has because of his longevity. since toney lost to roy jones about 15 years ago toney has won just 1 world title fight . thats it in the last 15 years.
Yep your correct. Can't believe people don't remember this fight falling through. I remember it vividly as I am big fans of both Hopkins and Toney. Though Hopkins didn't simply back out. Don King had agreed a purse with Bernard and had signed a contract agreeing to the purse and fight but King tried to drop the purse at the last minute. Hopkins of course pulled out there and then having been screwed over by Butch Lewis, a former promoter of his, for years and wasn't going to go through the same thing again. Such a shame it would have been a great fight.
Agreed. Skills don't make a good fighter. It also comes down to dedication, consistency, achievements.
