Is James Toney an ATG?

And the Tiberi fight happened just 7 weeks after the McCallum fight.

He fought them all in under a year.

His schedule was crazy back then.

As we both know, everyone criticises him for the Tiberi fight. But it’s actually surprising that they weren’t more performances like that on his resume.

 

Tiberi was the sort of keep busy soft touch one schedules after a challenging opponent like McCallum.

But it didn't quite turn out that way

 

I think it is only the haters who make a big deal out of the Tiberi fight. It is clear that a ready prepared Toney is in different class than TiberiYou could see a Toney who was winded after just a few rounds and who could barely stand on his feet. One could think he wouldhave a heart attack in the break when the gloves were exchanged. Ending up with a cramp in his legs the last round. Quity frankly, the whole thing was unwatchable. The commentators picked up on this suggesting that Toney was not properly prepared. Tiberi took advantage with his better conditioning, that is to his credit.

 

Yeah.

You can imagine a guy being deflated when facing a C level guy less than 2 month after facing a technician like Mike.

 

I actually wish that Tiberi had been given the decision. Then we could have seen a rematch.

 

Definitely a HOF'er. Toney, when he was on song, was fantastic to watch. He competed in some very high-end contests and demonstrated an elite level of boxing.

However, I don't consider him an ATG and this is mainly down to his attitude towards the boxing lifestyle, which I think interfered with his potential to be consistent and do better. These negative aspects of Toney were entirely down to him and I think they let him down, when competing for ATG honors, in my opinion.

The extent of the adverse impact from his inconsistency is, of course, debatable. For this reason, I'm not all that bothered by those, who have him in their ATG listings.

 

Hopkins was his mandatory at 160.
Barkley was more money at 168.

Like I said, his weight jumps had everything to do with an opportunity.

 

Anyone can be an abnormality if you're specific enough.

 

Hopkins wasn't unproven. He was IBF #1, a mandatory challenger, and a 5 year veteran with about 23 fights.

Still, I understand why Toney took the Barkley fight. More money, a past prime opponent, and an influential title in a wide open division. It was......the better opportunity.

 

No. You’re just nitpicking.

Your previous posts obviously implied that he was an opportunist who took the easy route.

He’d beaten Nunn, Reggie and Mike at MW, and SMW was a new challenge, against a named opponent who had recently fought Hearns again. That was then followed up by beating a good fighter in Tim Littles.

He deserves zero criticism for not having fought Hopkins. And whenever he’d have moved up, he’d have missed somebody as his mandatory at MW. It was inevitable.

 

Again, Toney vs Peter was a mandated WBC Eliminator. That means neither man is next in line until they.... ELIMINATE the other.

This isn't a question of opinion or interpretation. Toney either had to fight Peter or give up his ranking to someone who will. That's how an ordered Eliminator works.

You might want to get the facts straight on your first argument before trying to bring Byrd into this.

 

He was unproven.

He’d beaten nobody of note.

We saw against Roy how good a fighter he was, but before that, he was somewhat unknown and definitely unproven. He’d only fought low level guys.

It doesn’t matter if he was ranked number 1 with the IBF.

The orgs have ranked guys that highly in the past who weren’t even world level fighters.

You’re now trying to twist things where you’re saying that he took a better opportunity.

You’ve turned it into something positive that he did. But in your earlier posts, you clearly labelled him as being an opportunist where it was used in derogatory manner.

 

Not implied. I directly stated he was a weight jumping opportunist.

You've done nothing but strengthen that statement with the few facts you got right.

 

Tough call. His lack of discipline was what kept him from meeting his full potential. Somewhere inside of him was a great fighter trying to get out, but he lacked the commitment and dedication to training.

 

Yes, and it was said in a derogatory manner.

That was quite clear.