Retrospective: Toney vs Jones

One of my favorite performances ever...

Jones was phenomenal.

 

:good

Jones in the 90's was as good as it got.

Say what you will about Jones. But when he delivered, he delivered.

 

"Toney is in the ring with two other people and he is looking for the fighter in it" - Larry Merchant

 

Better against Toney???

I don't think so, that was a masterful performance for the ages..

I also don't believe Tarver and Johnson get the satisfaction had they faced a younger Roy without 50 or more fights..

Tarver would have the best chance... But Johnson would have been easy work IMO.

 

The reason he was so spectacular is PEDS.
Jones was probably a cheat all his life.
This is why he got away with flawed fundamentals.

But fate always catches up with you, eventually.
So, these substances he took to cheat started scrambling his brains; all the money he made by cheating, evaporated thereafter in thin air.

Today health is gone, and he's prostituting himself for paydays, and adding to his brain damage.
All that remains are his past fame and (still) enormous and misplaced ego.


I would respect him a lot more if he came clean.
But we know how Jones' type go: Marion Jones and Lance Armstrong exemplify it all too well.

 

Toney also did not train for arguably the biggest fight of his career against Rahman for the WBC heavyweight championship.

Had Toney had won that fight, he would probably be ranked ahead of Hopkins and Jones.

 

Some more facts:
-Toney had to lose 40+ lbs in 6 weeks before the fight. He also broke camp. To say that he was underprepared and weight drained is an understatement. He was a dead man walking and not fit to step into the ring, let alone against a prime RJJ. After the loss, Toney clashed with his team and especially with his manager Jackie Kallen over this issue, he wanted to call the fight off at the last minute but she forced him to step into the ring. This puts things into perspective, but of course, this is all Toneys own fault, and Roy can't be blamed for it, he just did what he had to do.

-Roy Jones jr. had his own problems preparing for this fight: he fractured his right hand and he had also trouble making the 168lbs weight limit (officially he was moving up from MW to SMW with this fight, but he had some fights at SMW before it).

 

:roflatsch

He was never going to pass Hopkins and I am not fan of Jones but he wouldn't have passed Jones either. You are delusional. Rahman was an average to mediocre Heavyweight. He 'lost' to Ruiz for christ sakes the same Ruiz that Toney decided to use PED's to try and beat.

 

You gotta put things into perspective. Toney had a real run at heayweight, if that run would have been crowned by a title, things would have been looked differently. Toney actually beat some decent heavyweights.

Jones never had a run at cruiserweight or heavyweight.

 

I don't remember anything about Jones having trouble making weight. I know 160 wasn't easy, which is way he had so many fights at 164-165 before he fought Toney, not including Tate.

 

While I agree that Jones never had a run at Cruiserweight or Heavyweight we have to look at things from this perspective:

Toney is a 2 time convicted PED cheat at Heavyweight

He was 10-4 with 2 NC's and 1 Draw. His best win is old Holyfield, Oquendo, or Guinn. Not a very impressive resume. He never really was a factor at Heavyweight. Now this wasn't horrible but it wasn't good either. He was outboxed by Sam Peter twice who had absolutely no skills to speak of.

 

If Toney had beat Jones I think he would have a very strong case over Jones..

Toney's MW resume already ****s on Jones'..

Toney would then have also had the better SMW resume.

Jones would still have the better LHW resume, but I think that loss derailed Toney's career for a bit, and he may have been a better LHW resume..

Toney had the better CW run.

And better HW run.

That would have given Toney the better resume in 4 out of the 5 weights they have competed at.. and a H2H win over Jones

In hindsight, it was a huge legacy fight for both.

 

Lets ask this question:

In how many divisions was James Toney THE champion in? Also, factor in the head to head loss like you said.

 

I really beleve JT has a better resume than Jones. However, in terms of legacy Jones ranks above Toney in my view.Toney just never won a heavweight title.