It is a very difficult task to stop Toney. The man has been around forever and has a very strong believe in himself. Vitali won't be able to land those right hands regularly as he did against Peter. If James stays on the ropes, that will only make VItali foolish.
scar mate, please read what i said again i was backing you up, for no other reason that i agree with your take on toney ar heavy weight. read again dude
as you may know i am no fan of peter myself, but i think peter won a close decision. 116-112 is by no means being exposed, it's only two rounds away from a draw. as for toney being knocked out, i have never said that toney doesn't have one of the greatest chins around but that doesn't make him a great hw.
People should stop saying Toney-Peter 1 was a f'ckin robbery. It was debatable. The scores were ******ed but not Peter winning. Peter won by no more than a round imo.
I sincerely hope for James Toney's health that he retires. Sam Peter looked fast against the over the hill Toney. He is punch drunk as demonstrated by his slurred speech. He is one tough guy, but against Vitali or Wlad it would be to his detrement. He has no where near enough power at heavyweight to worry either. Wlad or Vitali will easily be able to stay on the outside and throw boms all night, out of reach of Toneys counters. Toney is too old and slow to get inside. It would put his health in serious jeopardy. I don't think we should force guys out of the ring, but people who care about Toney should tell him to call it quits.
Based on his last fight against Rahman, James showed that he still has something left in the tank. In fact, I think that this version of Toney was better than the one who fought Peter both times. He was at his lowest weight since 2003. I agree that he still needs to improve his condition for his potential bout with Thompson. But if he gets past the tall and capable Thompson, I am not scared if he fights Vitali. Toney is something like an Archie Moore, an oldtimer who can fight well in the early 40's. I do not see him winning against Vitali though.
Guys...if the Toney/Thompson fight takes place late this year, Toney will be encouraged to retire...this is such a bad style match-up for James. With Thompson's high punch output and obvious reach advantage, it will be a tactical nightmare for Toney. I hope he fights Lamon Brewster instead...he has a much better chance of winning that fight. This is the fight I think is going to happen later this year. I think Goosen is too smart to send Toney into a fight with Thompson.