Pugilistic Poetry: Barkley vs Toney

This was amazing, well done man.

 

What always amazed me about James Toney is that he would be right in the danger zone and not get hit with an effective punch and counter punch the heck out of the other guy.

 

Please don't pretend like Toney's win over Barkley was anything special.

The truth is that Barkley had not fought at 168 in over 13 months prior to his fight vs. Toney. During those 13 months he fought at LHW and above. By the time he fought Toney he had trouble making 175 let alone 168.

 

Not entirely fair, hookie. Lots of fighters have fought weight drained opponents and not looked a fraction as special as Toney did that night. Lloyd Honeyghan gets talked up as one of Britain's greatest ever fighters but take away the victory over the weight drained Curry and his resume of top wins is rather thin. Roy Jones fought a severely weight-drained Toney and didn't look anywhere near this good.

Toney did what he had to do and it was precision boxing regardless of how Barkley was.

 

From memory Toney and RJJ were P4P 1 and 2, or very close. Barkley would be a long way behind that, to say the least.

I thought RJJ looked amazing vs Toney. I think he'd also whallop this version of Toney. RJJ's speed and elusiveness allied to his power make him Toney's kryptonite imo.

Toney is a very skilled fighter tho, he does some eye opening things in the ring. Real old school stuff.

 

The win gets blown out of proportion. It's about as good as Scott Walker's win over

 

Arguello. Barkley did party with Eddie and Charlie Murphy later that night.

 

I understand Roy is stylistically all wrong for James but I believe if Jones/Toney had have fought around this time at 168 it would have been a much closer affair and Toney might even have pulled it off. Roy certainly was never keen to get back in a ring with James, a shame because they are 2 of my personal favourites.

 

Maybe it isn't 'special' but it is still a masterclass from one of boxings finest artists. James Toney is pugilistic royalty!

 

This is what this forum should be about and not all those random heavyweight threads we are getting.
Excellent stuff.

 

One of my favourite displays by any fighter.

Sure Barkley was made to order for James but gee he did it so, so well. Poetry is a very apt description for it.