Toney has by no means a history of ducking people. He fought the best in every weight class, just look at his HOF resume. The two opponents who he did not fight were Gomez at cruiserweight and the Klitschkos at heavyweight. He received an offer for both fights. For the Gomez he had to go to Germany and he was not offered a lot of money. He elected to face Gurov in a WBA eliminator in order to face Hill. It was reported that he got offered 3 millions of a Klitschko fight and he turned that one down.
Well I saw Benn make him an offer on live TV and even Eubank, and Toney ate his way out of that, Calzaghe was always calling him out, ridiculing him, not a peep from Toney, I can't be sure but someone told me he turned down Hopkins, and as you stated, the Klitschko offer, rejected, if he won't fight the best in the HW scene, and he is a heavyweight, whats he doing in there? Fat drug abusing disgrace
I totally respect James' style and enjoy it but in this fight I don't think he was affective enough with it in comparison to how affective Peter was, which is why he lost the decision in my eyes. At some points James would look like he's trying to "steal" rounds more than be active enough in them and Peter took advantage of that as he obviously had more energy due to being younger, that's what made Toney look bad in my opinion. You simply can't land two or three clean shots a round in comparison to the many body shots, combinations and just activity and expect to take the round.
Toney called out Benn countless times in the early 90's. It was Hopkins who turned town as he did not agree with the financial terms of the contract. Calzaghe and Toney were never even in the same weight class. Toney would have schooled Clazaghe's ass regardless.
Toney called Benn out on the eve of his rematch with Eubank, and Benn accepted there, stating after he beat Eubank he would, he then went on live TV after many fights fater that calling for Toney, but stating Jones was the best, Toney also calls out Klitschko's... but we all know his fight appetite doesn't matching his stomachs. Joe not being in the same weight shouldn't matter, look at Pac and DLH, if theres great fighters, they should meet and Joe always said he'd step up if Toney stepped down, Light Heavy is achieveable. I can't comment on Hopkins, as I was only told via a third party, but it doesn't suprise me after Hopkins withdrew from a fight with joe 5years ago at the last minute, but on teh flip side, it wouldn't suprise me the other way around either. Toney schooling Joe? no ones witnessed Joe lose, so how can we predict a fight when we haven't seen Joe ever be in that situation, we have however seen Jones maul Toney, and Toney humiliated a number of times.
Byrd gave Vitali fits?? Byrd had won one or two rounds out of 9 rounds. Toney did absolutely nothing against Rahman in the rematch until the headbutt came and Rahman was dazed and couldn't see properly. Indeed the Thompson fight will be telling of how he'll do with a tall fighter, and i'll bet you that not only Toney will lose, but lose almost every round. Has the fight been signed, though? If Toney's management they'll go for a more winable fight.
Since when do B level gatekeepers fight for a title? Toney does not deserve to get anywhere near a title. Unlike Maskaev he was unable to even beat Rahman in 2 attempts. Maskaev koed him 2 times and would have done the same to the punch drunk Toney. Vitlalli would take Toney to school worse than Sam Peter did in his shutout win over the over weight mouthpiece. A broken and hurt Toney would not make it off his stool for the 3rd rd against the champion. No way this pudgy little pretender makes it to the halfway mark of the fight.
When Calzaghe was a supermiddleweight, Toney was a cruiserweight with heavyweight plans. When Clazaghe was a light heavy, Toney was a heavyweight. There was too much weight difference for this fight as Toney did not want to come down and Calzaghe refused to move up. Besides, I do not remember Calzaghe calling out Toney. Toney has much more skills ,that is why he would beat that ass. The Benn situation was a long time ago. It was never clear why Toney-Ben did not become reality.
Byrd won more than one round. The fight was actually fairly close, do not let those biased German judges fool your objective view of the fight. Toney proved in the Rahman II fight that he still is a Top 10 Contender.
The fight was fairly close??? I'm not basing my view on "biased German judges", i'm basing my view on what i saw during that fight, and Byrd lost the vast majority of the rounds. Oh and for the record, 2 of the 3 judges were American. atsch And exactly what did Toney prove against Rahman? Rahman HIMSELF is not even a top10 contender, and he didn't beat him, he lost the first two rounds, then came on after the headbutt, and the fight was stopped because of the butt. But if you believe a No Contest against a fringe contender while losing the majority of the rounds makes you a top10 contender, more power to you.
The judges were bought by the Kohl Mafia, that makes them "German judges". I still think Toney is a top ten contender. Real boxing insiders who know the sport will tell you the same thing. He showed in his last fight that his skills are still intact.
I have to agree with Blade here, Toney and Calzaghe never were in negotiations to fight each other. Toney and Hopkins however were, I think it was right after Toney's victory against Jirov in 2003, oppenly dicussing about a catchweight for a potential fight.
Face it, Byrd's the fight vs. Vitali was indeed pretty close. A near prime Byrd was causing Vitali massive problems with his akward style. I am not sure about the outcome should the fight have continued, but both fighters made it an even contest at the time of the stoppage as Byrd seemed to gain confidence in each round.