James Toney with Floyd's dedication and work ethic

Toney was even better than Floyd in terms of flat-footed defensive evasions, slicker than Floyd with shorter, nicer shots in body-head combos. He was even more talented than Floyd because he didn't need to grab or run.

A dedicated, motivated Toney WAS frightening - see Barkley/Littles fights.

 

He would have had a better career. Jones always beats him. Terrible style matchup, and the fact that Jones was just a great fighter.

Toney was best when fighters came at him and pressed the action, as Toney is one of the best counterpunchers I have ever seen.

He still would have problems with certain opponents who used more movement and would try to force Toney to lead.

 

He'd always have the bad luck of sharing era and weight class with arguably the best h2h fighter ever p4p, but other than that he'd dominate mw to lhw in all probability. One of my favorite fighters to watch. So extremely talented.

 

Toney when on top of his game was a hard guy to beat... I think had his career gone a little differently he could`ve easily captured the light heavyweight title and ruled that division as well.. I`d like to here if anyone has any inside information on what Toney trained like... I`ve always imagined that in his prime at middleweight and super middleweight he must`ve been an extremely hardworker to get to those division. What I suspect is later on in his career he laid off on a lot of the gym work but still sparred a **** load... I`d really like to here though if anyone has any inside information on what Toney trained like during different stages of his career

 

Even with that, he wouldn't have been as good as Floyd. Floyd is blessed with greater speed than Toney. He would have had a better career though.

 

What Toney had was not natural ability. It was the product of many hours with a great teacher, Bill Miller.
How was his career disappointing? World titles at 160, 168. He said in 91 he'd be HW champ by 04 and did it.

 

Toney was amazing in his prime. Unbelievable talent!

 

That is like asking what Pamela Anderson would have been like without those ti ts. Why not just marvel at what James has achieved without the dedication and work ethic?

 

Floyd optimized his talents through dedication and careful matchmaking.

Toney stumbled through his career with better fighting instincts and arguably more talent.

 

Toney's defense is overrated.
Listen to the man talk, living proof that he was getting hit far too much.

He was a cagey fighter but needed to be matched with guys who were a lot slower than himself usually.
Even some of them troubled him.

 

Well said.
People often who look at a fighter and mistake learned skills and developed physical attributes for "natural talent".
Really, no one knows who had the superior talent. We just see the end products.

 

Meh, pointless.

At one point in his career, Toney did have that work ethic, dedication and such - that's how he got so good. The problem is, as is the case with a lot of boxers, look at Adrien Broner, they get a bit of money in their bank account and the hunger dies down, they don't have the will to keep going as hard in the gym because they think they've already made it.

Floyd on the other hand trains like he never made it, he continues to train as hard, if not harder than he did when he was coming up, that's the rarity. It's funny though, it seems if a boxer has a big fall away as Toney did, we over-rate their peak.. While if a boxer consistently stays a great fighter throughout their career, we under-rate their peak.

James Toney at his peak, is no where near as complete a boxer as Floyd Mayweather Jr was at 135.