Everybody up to 168 with the possible exception of Hagler, I would take Toney, with Ward being his toughest fight. 175 and up I have no opinion except I would expect cruiserweight Holyfield to F James up.
Professionalism is a factor in my book. He was inconsistent within rounds, also. He was often a negative fighter, a guy who stalled and tried to shorten rounds. Calzaghe would not allow that. All I am saying is that it would be a close fight, due largely to the styles of the fighters but also their respective qualities.
You make some good points. I'm taking the very best Toney who I recall Iran Barkley trying to smother and enforce his size and strength on Toney (I admit that Barkley isn't in Joe Calz's class though) and outwork him along the ropes and James put on a master piece because that completely played into Jame's very best assets, those being infighting and pin point counter punching. I see Joe Calzaghe employing similar tactics to Iran although with a better defence, faster hands and even higher work rate. The thing is Joe would constantly be in the range that James works best and James had a hard and deadly accurate counter right hand and Joe was always (even at his very best) susceptible to those. Just a bad stylistic match up for Joe in my view but also completely predicated on James Toney being in his absolute peak form which quite regularly didn't happen.
