Joseph William Calzaghe vs. James Nathaniel Toney

This is a pick em fight between two atgs this is no run away fight for either fighter. To suggest anything else is foolish.

 

We are talking about the best versions of themselves. Toney was weight drained against Tiberi. Tiberi left the sport because he is a ****ing punk that’s why.

 

Nunn was far slicker than Calzaghe.

 

Toney v Tiberi is right up there with some of the worst robberies of all time including Whitaker V Chavez... but for some reason it doesn't really get mentioned as much, & that's probably because Tiberi was way down the pecking order... so all these Toney sycophants need to pull their heads out of his ass because he was fallible .. & certainly wasn't this mythical creature he's made out to be.. I can easily see Calzaghe working Toney.. of course James was a great fighter and would have his moments but I would actually favour the Welshman here

 

Because we judge fighters when they're at the best for mythical match ups, Toney was known to be a lazy fighter that didn't always train. Are we gonna judge Calzaghe for barely scrapping by Reid ? Or having off nights vs Starie or Salem ?

So why are we judging Toney on an off night ? And not the fights where he beat elite Southpaws like Nunn, Jirov. Which is more revelant to this discussion, since Nunn was a slick Southpaw who threw alot of combinations, and Jirov was a Southpaw with a high workrate. Both relevant to this discussion since Calzaghe has some of those same attributes.

 

In fact he beat s*** out of Toney and even Toney himself admitted years later he lost ... and that says a lot coming from someone as arrogant as him.. yes the great Dave Tiberi.. who was knocked out by Eubank & Collins whipping boy Tony Thornton.. but but Kessler couldn't hang with Toney ... even though James couldn't keep the goompa loompa montell Griffin off of him LMAO.. Call me when Calzaghe loses to Drake Thadzi ..

 

Very interesting bout, im backing Toney on this one.

 

Toney's excellent defence in the pocket is pure muscle memory - he rolled textbook combinations once he'd read the opponent's punching rhythm.

His issues defending like this vs JC is Calzaghe's off-beat rhythm, unusual punching style (yeah, I know... slap) and the sheer volume of punches coming his way. Toney would find it hard to time JC's attacks and evade the 4th, 5th or 6th punch in the combination.

Sitting in the pocket - Toney's safe space - would not be easy for him in this fight. Also... the elephant in the room and in the ring. Would Toney be suitably conditioned to work three mins of every round? I doubt it. And if he couldn't have success in the pocket, he'd have to move more than he would choose to.

JC on points in a very tough fight for me...

 

Toney worked for 3 mins of a round vs Southpaw Jirov who threw over 1000 punches, Toney himself was no slouch throwing over 800 punches.

 

I'll have to watch that fight and see if Jirov managed to make Toney move, but that's an interesting counterpoint you make...

 

Having watched the fight Jirov tended to throw predictable, slow combinations and rarely more than 2-3 punches at a time - he was just extremely busy rinsing and repeating very similar attacks. And Toney timed his punching rhythm after a few rounds to adjust. Despite this, Toney still looked very uncomfortable at times - had his mouthpiece half out to help his breathing at some points I noticed.

By no means would I argue Toney would be an easy night's work for JC but I don't think the Jirov fight persuades me to change my overall view; I don't think Jirov vs Toney would reflect how Toney vs JC would play out. JC had more speed of foot and hand than Jirov and threw faster, less predictable and more voluminous combinations.

As I said above, I suspect the 4th, 5th or 6th punch in JC's combos would be where he'd land enough to win but Jirov didn't do that.

But thanks for pointing me in the direction of this fight. I love watching Toney go to work. Why wasn't Jirov's punch to the top of the head which dropped Toney in the 9th called a KD, though? No way was that just a slip.

EDIT: By no means am I dogmatic about this fight though, Toney could win for sure. But I lean towards Joe...

 

What about the Nunn fight ? Nunn moved well and threw combinations, I'm also not a believer that Toney was getting dominated before stoppage either. I thought Toney had turned the tide 3 or 4 rounds prior to the stoppage, and the fight for me had become close.

As I said previously Calzaghe looks really good regarding eye test, but has he ever fought anyone remotely close to the level of a prime James Toney ? Atleast with Toney you could say hes beaten opponents on the same level as Calzaghe, you can't really say the same for Calzaghe outside of a 40+ year old Hopkins.