How do you rate James Toney?

Not as good as Roy.

 

Highly. He had great performances against Barkley, McCallum, Jirov, Holyfield and a nice late KO against Nunn

 

A tough old school fighter. despite blowing hot and cold was a real handful when motivated. One of my favorite fighters in the last 30 years.

 

I totally agree

 

head to head? Not great with the ATG fighters who could move since I think his foot movement was a little lumbering, but he was a great inside fighter and had a lot of heart and skill. I don't know if I rate him as a true ATG I would say no, but he is Hall of Fame for sure. He has a good legacy which will stand up for years, but his head to head aspect with great fighters will always come up short.

 

His toughest opponent was the jelly donut.

The shoulder roll had no antidote for the baker’s dozen with sprinkles.

 

I’ll drink your blood

 

I love watching him at his best but can't erase the memory of getting his @ss beat by Drake Thadzi and Dave Tiberi.

 

Could have been the GOAT Cruiserweight

 

I doubt it. I think Gomez would’ve beaten him in his own time, and good luck to him topping Usyk’s resume.

 

Everything starts with footwork and Toney was no exception. His footwork was very good in his prime. Just because he wasn't a mover like Pernell Whittaker doesn't mean he had poor footwork

 

Head to head I think he’s an utter nightmare for most guys from 160 - 230. And from a visual perspective I love watching his fights.

But legacy wise, which is about more than record, I don’t really think highly of him.
PED use and his attitudes outside of the ring as well as his in gym behaviour behind a terrible example to young fights, tarnish his legacy quite a bit for me.

 

I didn't say poor footwork, I said slow feet.

 

Go watch him back in the early 90s. If he had slow feet he'd always be off balance the way he moved his upper body

 

I've watched his entire career pal, pretty much every available filmed fight. He was good at keeping his feet under himself, having them rightly positioned and spaced relative to what his upper body and hands were doing all the time and never dipping or swaying too far away from his centre of gravity. That's why he was usually never off balance. Taking little, minimalistic steps sideways and backwards at mid to close range if someone was coming at him etc. But he was generally flat footed and more comfortable with fighters coming to him than having to chase them. Part of it imo was a comfort zone thing and attitude thing, he never seemed arsed about tracking good movement although he was capable of cutting off the ring in technical terms, he just didn't have the quickest feet on the front foot and was lazy with it and not able to get punches off on the front foot as well as when he was stationary, especially if an opponent was moving to his right imo

Not having quick feet has no direct correlation to having poor balance or poor technical footwork, there have been plenty of slow/flat footed great fighters with good upper body movement throughout history. Tiger, Valdez, Marquez etc. And they all had great balance and a strong base the same as Toney did.

That's all I'm saying on the matter