How would Toney do in this great LHW era? They were weighing the day of the fight so it might've been only so long before Toney would've outgrew (ate) his way out of the division. But it'd be interesting to have seen him fight the likes of Saad, Lopez, Qawi, M. Johnson, Muhammad, etc...Spinks less so, I think Spinks would've fought in the less exciting style that he had the ability to use and jabbed and boxed his way to a dull decision.
James Toney was never a good LHW fighter. That class was his weakness, he couldnt make the proper adjustments for the 175 class to be successful. Like Jermaine Taylor and most Americans cant adapt to SMW.
Don't think he'd fare too well imo. That was a deep division in those days. Give him a decent chance against Lopez however. Saad would've been a great fight. Not trying to knock him its just that these guy's made todays LH's look fairly ordinairy.
LHW was by far Toney's most dissapointing division. Montell Griffin owned him here(not that Griffin was a bad fighter by any means but he did not compare to the legends of the late 70's early 80's) and he also lost to some guy named Drake Thadzi who was never heard from again after that. This is where his career slid before his reawakening at cruiserweight.
Toney fighting at 175 is a different size than fighting at 175 in those days. He weighed in 30 hours before the fight and sometimes rehydrated into the 190s. I think his 168 lb. performances should be taken into account when comparing him to LHWs of that time, following the rules back then.
