James Toney Names the Best He Fought

McCallum was a stud, and that wasnt even prime MM that Toney saw.....and hell yes he's greater than Jones.....Roy only counted on his athletic ability once that was gone he was barely a average joe.....Mike was still great in his senior citizen days....

 

Sure, McCallum definitely has the longevity. Even in his mid 30's he got the better of Toney imo, and his losing efforts at the end of his career (against Toney and Jones) were very honorable seeing how past it he was.

The argument for Jones is how truly untouchable he was in his prime. No other fighter has arguably looked as invincible over a 10 year period as Jones did.

It's all about what you like. I for one like to watch McCallum a lot more. As for who who should be seen as better or be ranked higher, I can't really be ****d more than to say that a case can be made for both.

 

I am a bigger fan of McCallum than of Jones. However, Jones beat Toney easily while McCallum lost to him twice and drew once. Fighters often don't give enough credit to the fighters that beat them. McCallum was a tremendous fighter but at the time he fought Tony (even the first fight), he was not as good as Jones was when he beat Toney.

 

McCallum, Toney, Hopkins, Calzaghe, Collins, Benn, Eubank. All of these plus others were contemporaries of Jones. When have you ever see them go over and out like they were sniped by a Taliban bullet? And not just once.

Very good reflexes in his prime, absolutely, very good fighter, nah. The epitome of the saying "hype over substance"

Ironically in the Greb thread we read about the heavier men he fought, Jones fought ONE then after TALKING about fighting others, went back down, but there are people who would claim his resume is better than Greb's.

 

Let's see. In his prime Jones beat McCallum, Toney and Hopkins and did not fight the others.

Apparently your only criteria for rating a fighter is the quality of his chin and reflexes once he is well past his prime.

Jones had skill to go with reflexes. He still had to be able to throw an assortment of punches with good power and technique.

Many fighters decline when their reflexes go. That does not mean they weren't very good/great in their prime.

For example, once he lost his reflexes, Matthew Saad Muhammad went from championship level to below club fighter level. Tell me with a straight face that Matthew Saad Muhammad was "never a very good fighter."

 

Talented enough to have been a better boxer than mccallum ever was.

 

Jones was in Ring Magazine's top two pound for pound performers for 9 years.

When did McCallum make this grade once?

Jones had a title at 24. Had McCallum even turned pro yet?

So, you can say McCallum was good for an old man but Jones was great for young man. I know which I would prefer.

 

Completely false an alogy. MSM was often in wars, but had great fundamentals. Jones had none, particularly where defence was concerned. He ONLY had reflexes, much like Hamed. Every fighter loses their reflexes to some extent as they age, but not too many of them become walking punchbags and get KTFO every time they face a better than average puncher.

It appears that ( like a lot of Jones fan boys ) your criteria for a fighters prime is up until he loses. Then the excuses, and revisionism comes tumbling out.

Apart from the DQ loss to Griffin, when did he ever AVENGE a defeat?

As someone already stated McCallum was able to fight Jones and Toney at 40, whilst they were in their prime's BECAUSE he was the better, more grounded fighter. His reflexes were nothing like they were when he was younger, but his fundamentals still allowed him to give a decent account of himself.

 

So a Yank was voted in the top 2 of a Yank invented ranking, in a Yank magazine for 9 years, well whoopdee fuking doo.

That must make it gospel.:roll::roll:

 

So who would you, as non-Yank, have ahead of him during those years?

 

I was thinking the same thing.

 

Or maybe he should include that MMA fighter who he embarrassingly got his derrière kicked from.

 

Roy Jones Jr. was the best fighter for a few years. He overshadowed many other real good fighters of the day. Boxers eventually figured Jones out though and he got what was due to him.

 

Dude, no one gives a f**k about Joe Calzaghe in the context of James Toney or Mike McCallum or RJJ. Why even bring him up? You think when James Toney or RJJ or McCallum or Hopkins, or another comparable fighter is asked who the greats are they think of Joe Calzaghe or perhaps Steve Collins? Wake up. They are not thinking of Murray Sutherland or Eric Lucas or Sven Ottke either. LOL.

No one brings up sprinters running 10.4 when discussing the greatest that ever ran on a track.

The 10.4 guys include Joe Calzaghe.

Now, as a guy with European (focusing on the WHITE part of that for your benefit not the "colonized additions") ancestry, we all wish there was some extraordinary talent with amazing gifts to laud but like the UNICORN there just aren't any examples that hit that mark. Maybe someday there will be (wish on a star, son, who know what might be delivered if we wait long enough). At a minimum, you can at least get behind a mixed marriage where someone like Andre Ward provides "the right combination" to get to a higher plane of athletic talent and quality.

SO, let me reiterate for your thick skull. You can be certain that when the discussion is which guys bring the best combination of speed, quickness, power, talent, athleticism, movement, etc., etc., etc. NO GREAT is going to be mentioning Joe Calzaghe. He is miles from that conversation. Why you feel compelled to raise his name when Toney is mentioning McCallum and RJJ is stunning.

Think about it, Toney picked RJJ as the BEST in THREE separate categories: BEST BOXER, BEST HANDSPEED, & BEST FOOTSPEED.

That is pretty damn satisfactory when the evaluator is JT.

They didn't ask Toney who at 168 slaps, has mediocre defense, and if he had gotten in the ring with you would have been laid out cold under the distance.

There is nothing worse that some clown wanting to drag some modest talent into the room when we've seen his entire career. Going life and death with a 43 year old puts Joe in that same lofty class with the Jermain Taylors, et al. It is decent but it is not the apex. Still, beating a shot RJJ puts Joe in the equivalent lofty group as Glen Johnson, Tarver, Danny Green, and Lebedev. And, garnering a decision over Euro talent Kessler puts him in the same elite class as Ward and Froch.

The thread title is "JAMES TONEY NAMES THE BEST HE FOUGHT". If the thread title was "JAMES TONEY NAMES THE BEST HE EVER SAW" Joe's name would only come up if James was going one by one and was in the 300s for TOP MWs/SMWs/LHWs.

OTOH, if there is ever a thread titled "Mikkel Kessler names the best he fought" you can be sure that Calzaghe, Froch, and his daddy Andre Ward will receive ample coverage.

How's that, man?


lmao

:good

 

I think you hit the nail on the head. Foxy is a Calzaghe lover her does his best to diss Jones at the earliest opportunity. He claims the Americans are biased but some of these brits, no offense, worship their top fighters. It might be because, historically, there haven't been nearly as many top fighters from Brittain as from the U.S.