If Toney gets past Thompson and Vitali past Gomez (which I expect), we might see Vitali fighting 40 year old former middleweight James Toney next year. After yesterday's performance, I gotta say that Vitali is the favorite against every current heavyweight. I can not see Toney beating Vitali but I defintely see an inshape and focused Toney doing better than Peter. Styles make fight, and remember Vitali had nothing but trouble with Byrd before he quit. Plus, Toney has never been stopped in his 20 year old career. If Toney gets in a little better shape than for the Rahman II fight (around 220) I defintely see him going the distance and making Vitali look foolish times. He will be oupointed though.
I agree I don't see Toney winning against either Klitschko at this point. That's why I always said that he should go after the WBA belt before he retires, I can see him beating Chagaev. Anyways, IF Toney can get in good shape and have something left he can give both Klitschkos a tough fight, have his moments and go the distance. Let's see how he fares against Tony Thompson in december before speculating any further.
Vitali knocks him out in brutal laughable one-sided fashion, the only way Toney will take this fight seriously is behind the microphone and the proof is out there. When Toney was in DESPERATE need of a big fight and a situation where he CAN'T AND WON'T get anything serious Vitali approached him and offered him a career high payday in $3million which Toney turned down and demanded more because he THOUGHT(in his own delusional mind) that he's worth more. Let's face it, NC to Ruiz for taking roids and banishment from fighting for the WBA title doesn't raise his stock, maybe in Burger King but not in boxing. Toney turned it down when he desperately needed it and didn't he insult Vitali in every single interview and demanded he wants him ASAP?, didn't he yell out loud after Ruiz "I WANT KLITSCHKO"? Toney has done nothing at Heavyweight and won't do anything.
Toney vs. Vitali would have been a much more competitif match up 4 or 5 years ago when Toney was still in full possession of his physical and natural skills. I do agree that today's version of Toney would still put on a better perfomance than Peter though. And who knows, with the lack of colourful opponents and Vitali's willingness to fight on, we just might to see it happening.
I agree, we will have to wait first how he does against Thompson. That is a tough matchup and will give us a definitive indication what he really has left.
Vitali knocking out Toney, well, that remains to be seen. It has never happened in the last 20 years.
He beat Sam Peter in the first fight, and he would have beat Maskeav, which means he should have the WBC belt that fat **** was fraudulently waddling around with for the last x number of months.
5'10 toney would never get close enough to bother klitschko. it would be another easy win either 119-109 or a late tko.
Maybe, but it would still be more exciting than the Peter fight. I do not think that Vitali knocks him out.
Vitali will beat Toney with far more ease than you say. My guess is that the best Toney could do against Vitali is to lose the same way Vaughn Bean did. In other words, Toney would lose every round in one sided fashion before being TKO'd late in the bout. Toney will probably never be off of his feet though. I just do not think the 5'9" Toney can pull his bag of tricks against the 6'7" Vitali, who is a defensive specialist and an expert and keeping guys at a distance with his jab. I disagree with your assessment of Vitali-Byrd. Vitali was handicapped in that bout with a severely torn rotator cuff which limited his punch output and punch accuracy. Even so, he was far ahead on points before the worsening of the injury caused him to quit. Just imagine what a healthy Vitali would have done to Byrd.
There's a reason it didn't happen and that's exactly why. I'm pretty confident that Vitali knocks him down numerous down and OUT in the end either by KO or TKO. There's a reason Toney only relies on trash talking when it comes to the Klitschkos, when anything official is sent to him he's back to KFC.