What if James Toney won a title at LHW in the 90s? Who would he have beaten to win a title? How would being a 5 weight division champion enhance his legacy?
Assuming he could maintain that weight I think he would have done well. Obviously he'd never beat a prime Jones in my opinion and depending on when he fought Virgil Hill it could have been a tough fight. Dariusz whats his face would have been a good one. being a five division champ might have earned him some points, but it seems like everyone wins multiple division titles these days
It's not like he didn't try at LHW. He lost to Griffin and Thadzi, and couldn't keep the weight. Jones was WBC and RING LHW, he's not beating him. Dari had the other claim. He's not beating him. Maybe take the IBF strap form Guthrie. Which wouldn't mean that much as Guthrie got it from a technical vacancy when Hill was stripped for fighting Dari.
Well he beat Prince Charles.....If he moved up prior to Jones and was properly focused I don't see any champion he couldn't beat. You could easily give him those Griffin fights and Dariusz is pretty made to measure stylistically for him if he actually shows up focused and in shape, which he didn't really at 175. The Jones defeat mentally destroyed Toney, it shows the importance of psychology in boxing.
Toney was his own worst enemy in alot of ways...I like Toney and his style, and when he is on, I think he is tough to beat. But with that said there are caveats that go along with certain fighters...if only they were focused and in good shape blah blah. Toney, Duran, Giardello et al.
He was just a bit weak at LHW, relatively. He needed steroids above 168, and steroids would have always put him in cruiser/heavy.
Toney was very good at light heavyweight just like he was at middleweight and cruiserweight. In fact I didn't feel he actually lost any fights at light heavyweight. Both fights against Montell Griffin I thought Toney looked very good and deserved the win clearly. Against Thadzi, Toney looked very lack luster but I still thought he was able to win more rounds by landing the cleaner punches and defending most of Thadzi attack. Close to being a draw but I don't think it was z loss forToney though he looked terrible for his standards. I feel the only light heavyweight of his time that would've beat him for real would've been Jones Jr.
