Jake LaMotta vs. James Toney

LaMotta presures him enough and scores enough to win a decision. I'm not so sure he'd stop Toney.

 

Local next day report about Toney-Sosa:

James Toney continues savoring a three-year old decision to choose boxing over football.

The Ann Arbor, Mich., native, who bypassed a two-year scholarship at the University of Michigan to pursue boxing, annexed the International Boxing Council middleweight title Sunday night. Toney hammered an undisciplined Merqui Sosa to gain a 12-round split decision at the Mark Etess Arena inside the Taj Mahal Casino Resort.

It should have been a lopsided unanimous decision, but judge John Riley awarded Sosa the last six rounds and a hard-to-believe 114-113 triumph. Judge John Poturaj scored it 115-112 for Toney, while William Kostrub's 117-109 verdict for Toney was closer to the mark.

Toney countered inside of Sosa's looping punches, floored him in the third and hustled the entire route.

"I saw right away that he was throwing those looping punches, that's how he is in all his fights," Toney said. "I knew that I just had to keep boxing on the inside and I would be fine. If you give him room on the outside, that's when he hits you with those weird shots. I wasn't going to let it happen."

That fundamental factor determined this matchup of fighters with gaudy credentials. Sosa entered at 18-0 with 14 knockouts while Toney was 23-0-1 with 17 knockouts. Both owned a victory over Sanderline Williams. The matchup was perfect.

Toney observed a potential roadblock with his weight, saying he had to lose two pounds after the weigh-in while IBC president Marty Cohen said he lost four. Yet Toney didn't display the lost energy that usually accompanies dramatic weight loss.

Toney fought strongly while Sosa failed to utilize a considerable reach advantage. Rather than jab and move, he lunged and hooked with the left hand. Sosa was never planted and continually off balance for Toney's counters.

The fight appeared over in the third when Toney dropped Sosa for a count of five with a right uppercut and left hook. A dazed Sosa survived the round, glared at Toney when it ended and later sought to goad him into mistakes. Sosa routinely exposed his left jaw and played possum in the fourth. Toney didn't buy Sosa's pretensions of being hurt and stayed with his plan.

Sosa rallied in the sixth, igniting a fiery exchange on the inside, but couldn't sustain the momentum.

 

The man couldn't even throw a right hand.

Toney slips LaMotta's predictable jab all day and counters him with complete ease. Mismatch and I don't even rate Toney.

 

This local report is totally meaningless. It´s normal that when the new darling like in this case Toney didn´t win via wide UD, the local reporters write it trough their glasses and with little objectivity. Sosa hurt him through their fight, and even today Toney say he was the opponent who hit him the hardest, and we´ll know that Toney moved up to HW and fought big hitters. It was a close fight. End of story. IMO.

 

Sosa hurt him in which round and what time of the round? When he hit him with those two right hands to the head? Toney's legs looked solid there, no sign of being hurt. Both were tired at the end of the fight, I can give you that (Sosa's work to the body played part in that), but Toney was a clear winner at the end. I gave Sosa 3 rounds, with only 7th round being a clear win for him, the other two were close. If I favored Sosa, I could give him one more round at best, the rest were clearly and convincingly won by Toney.

Toney: 1!, 3! (10-8 b/c of Sosa's KD), 4!, 5!, 6!, 8!, 9, 10! (10-8 b/c of Sosa's low blow), 11!
Sosa: 2, 7!, 12

117-109 for Toney

Here's some statistics from ESPN broadcast also:
Punches:
Round 1 - Toney 36/65 (55%) Sosa 19/73 (26%)
Thru round 3 - Toney 86/185 (47%) Sosa 60/194 (31%)
Round 4 - Toney 22/47 (47%) Sosa 9/50 (18%)
Thru round 5 - Toney 139/286 (49%) Sosa 87/303 (29%)
Round 6 - Toney 33/63 (52%) Sosa 15/64 (23%)
Round 7 - Toney 18/44 (31%) Sosa 19/54 (35%)
Jabs thru round 8 - Toney 57/134 (43%) Sosa 15/80 (19%)
Thru round 11 - Toney 289/625 (46%) Sosa 203/659 (31%)
Thru round 12 - Toney 311/693 (45%) Sosa 227/741 (31%)

Al's scorecard after 8 rounds - Toney 78 Sosa 73
Al's scorecard after 10 rounds - Toney 96 Sosa 92
Al's scorecard after 11 rounds - Toney 106 Sosa 101

 

Nice and intensive work, Senya13! But I think, if I remember right (what I think in this case), that this fight was much closer than for example your scorecard. But who knows, I have the fight, perhaps I watch it in the next days once again...

 

Toney was better at both quality and quantity of punches in the rounds I marked with "!". He was clearly better at defense (most punches Sosa did land were to the body, he rarely landed anything clean to the head, while Toney was hitting him with flush clean punches to the head all night long, Sosa keeping his hands low didn't help him either), he was better at ring generalship. Sosa was aggressive more time, but his aggressiveness mostly wasn't effective (he lands several punches the the body, Toney immediately answers with his own punches to the body AND head, landing combinations).