james toney deserves respect

like butt says people mock him for his size and laugh at his arrogance. bur the respect he has earned by fighting the best from when he was a pup to a fully grown man (bit more roundly grown) being abeast in every weight class he has been in. even nabbing a heavyweight title techncially. his skills aibilty and raw attributes have made him a cult figure almost. alot of wannabe toneys in the gym i see.





but he should retire at heavyweight he has gone the way of the cartoon deer

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At what stage of him career did he break with manager Jackie Kallen? If he remained around Middleweight/Super Middleweight. How would a showdown with Calzaghe possibly went?

 

Pro-Toney folk might jump on my back for this one, but even if we're matching the best versions of both men, then I think that Calzaghe had a good style with which to tackle Toney in a certain regard. He was, on a basic level, a much better version of Tiberi. If he didn't hang about too long on the inside, kept his left hand ready to catch Toney's overhand right and was able to move in and out with those suffocating flurries, he could outmanoevre Toney and, more crucially, outwork him down the stretch. He might have to ship some right hands to do it, but his speed, workrate and lateral movement is the key IMO. Toney usually fed off of orthodox aggressive fighters. But Joe, love him or hate him, was anything but orthodox.

 

The Calzahge fans arent going to like this one. Calzahge liked to work at a high work rate coming forward. A prime Toney would give Calzahge hell. Never saw Calzahge fight a guy as good as prime Toney with his defense savvy and countering ability.
I still dont really know how good Calzahge was, considering his laundry list of poor competition. Insert Calzahge into Jones Jr or Toney's resumes, and how does he fair? Too many Tocker Podwills and Will Mcentires on his record as title defenses. He was not a big puncher, so in my mind still quite a bit of question marks still surrounding Calzahge.

 

Because Toney, with his defensive savvy and countering ability, who lost nearly every round to TNT Tiberi, a poor man's Calzaghe? No-one as good as Toney? Does Hopkins ring a bell? Old or not, he was still extremely formidable and actually deigns himself to move his feet apart from being able to do everything else that Toney does.

Sorry, but that post is an appalling oversimpflication. If you're going to criticize Calzaghe, extend the same courtesy to Toney. Calzaghe wasn't Williams or Barkley. And I'm far from his biggest fan.

 

Cmon Toney was depressed going through a divorce and fed up with boxing. His mind was not into the game at that time, and he more than proved it by coming back and having an unbelievable run. Hopkins was not fighting like he did when he was at his best, cmon, he fought in slow spurts at his pace, maybe the reason Jermain Taylor edged him? :good

 

I liked Joe, but he could have done more. I blame Frank Warren for that, but Im not so sure he would be held in such high regard, had he gotten the career defining fights at better times. Its kind of like poor Lennox Lewis having to beat up on old Holyfield and Tyson. Not entirely his fault.

 

I respect his appetite ,you can't deny ,he's got as lot of guts .

 

I hear you. I never liked him much early doors but warmed to him a bit later on. But it has to be said that he represents something of a H2H nightmare for most fighters in history around his weightclass. I can't be arsed to go into JC's career at this point, it gets done to death. I'll settle for the notion that any man with relentless stamina, excellent lateral movement, excellent ring-generalship and very unorthodox handspeed of a kind that tends to stifle multiple counters, is giving James Toney a lot of trouble.

Toney never really dominated too many top opponents, but a lot of excuses get made for him on several varying grounds. He was lazy and lackadaisical with mediocre footwork even at his best. Against straightup average plodders like Barkley, he looked superb, owing to the repertoire of old school skills in his locker. But he was limited in his own way.

 

I thought it was pretty clear what I meant.

He has undoubted skill as a fighter but he's such a **** I therefore don't think he deserves any respect.

Oh and he twice tested positive for steroids which means he's a cheating,loud mouthed **** as well.