I've heard people argue that James Toney is not an All time great. He was a 3 weight world champion, a good heavyweight contender, the 2003 fighter of the year, and beat many good opponents. On the other hand he had some terrible losses, weight issues, and is still fighting much past his best. Where do you place him in history???? :bbb
Yeah, he's an ATG. I think it would be more obvious if he had retired around the Ruiz fight. All the extra losses make him look bad.
Definitley, a true ATG is someone who fought in multiple weight divisions (unless they started at HW) and overcame size differences.
This... All we see now is a overweight shell of a fighter, it is hard to remember he was anything else...
I dunno, if he'd achevied what he had without PEDs then I'd say yes, though a minor ATG. As it stands I count him no more than HoF, but a major one not minor backdoor like calzaghe.
He had a great run at middleweight and super middleweight until he ran into Jones Jr and then fell off badly with loses to Griffin and Thadzi but you can't discount the guys he beat before and then of course the win against Jirov. I think you have to take what he did at heavyweight with a pinch of salt as he was likely roiding the whole time. I don't think he was as good as some think, he had flaws, he lost badly to RJJ, was losing to Nunn, and had bad performances against Tiberi and Thadzi. I think the Griffin fights showed a lot of his flaws but he did more than enough during his long career to be considered a great.
You judge a great fighter by the calibre of opponent they beat, not losses years past their peak. James Toney is the clearest definition of a legitimate ATG as you will see.
It depends how important you consider consistency to be in order to be an ATG. Who was he last MW to fight multiple genuine HWs?
He is in my book.. Despite fighting to a ridiculous age, through numerous divisions and nearly 100 fights, James "lights out" Toney has never been stopped.. In his younger days he fought more actively than most modern champions save for perhaps Julio Chavez.. In 1991 he fought 6 times and faced greats in Michael Nunn and Mike McCallum just months apart within that same year.. His name was overshadowed by more charismatic personalities of his day, but his resume is every bit as good as a lot of the super stars who's fame eclipsed his own.
He's borderline ATG. He beat a previously undefeated Michael Nunn. Close fights with Mike McCallum and Reggie Johnson. Iran Barkley and Vassily Jirov were decent wins.