Here's a challenge: Predict who would win Toney-Young, but ONLY USING THESE CLIPS OF FILM. (Assume both were top contenders in their eras) No records, no "power" or "skill" arguments that are not clearly evident from the film, etc. A styles analysis is what I'm looking for here. [yt]3Z94i5IkBdE[/yt] [yt]qa4ibCBzirU[/yt]
Using ONLY this footage I see a decisive victory for Toney. We learn more about Toney in his clip than we do about Young in his respective film. Toney comes accross as tough, wily and incredably skilled in terms of defence (shoulder rolls, slipping punches, twisting the body, leaning away just far enough to evade punches) and able to fight well even when being presuured & against the ropes. We learn that Toney is blessed with great speed, superb countering ability and has a very good chin judging by some stiff shots he is able to shrug off from Jirov. We also learn Toney has great reslove as displayed by his ability to fight back from a painful looking and blatant low blow. What do we learn from Jimmy Young? Other than that he is fighting an opponent who shows an apparent lack of offense and appears disinterested. We are able to ascertain that Jimmy has a decent jab, good speed and is able to punch to the body but on the whole seems mystified by his bizarre opponents lack of interest. Young hardly takes any shots, let alone any meaningful blows, so its difficult to determine his resistence to punches i.e. chin, or his defesive characteristics. On this footage alone I would predict a victory for Toney on points. As the calibre of Young's chin is not revealed in this footage. In general compared with Toney, Young comes accross as fairly unremarkable.
Using this i'd see a stoppage win for Toney. Toney looks hard to hit and it seems that serious pressure is paramount, volume punches critical. Young looks capable of neither. He wants to jab his way to the 10-9 but he's going to miss a lot of jabs and get hit on the way back. He shuffles backwards. When he move laterally he tends towards one direction. No variety. A counterpuncher with less skill than Toney would be able to guess where the man would end up post-jab. You can hit Toney in the head all night, with a brick, and he'd be OK. He may be vulnerable to body shots. Young is repeatedly invited to hit Ali to the body and declines, trying to pick a hole in Ali's defence instead. Might be the right thing to do with Ali, but going on the footage we have you'd have to pick Young as a reticent headhunter with limited movement. There to be counter-punched to the canvas.
