This one is easy: Wladimir Klitschko. Pre-Steward Klitschko had two main problems: 1. Stamina issues - Wladimir would tire himself out trying to knockout guys he was confident of knocking out - Puritty and Brewster. 2. Susceptibility to the odd hard punch. This cost him the fight against Sanders. Toney never possessed the power of knocking Klitschko out at heavyweight. And Wlad would be wary of Toney's iron chin, so he would not go head hunting and drain himself out. Wlad's first win against Chris Byrd may well be the greatest of his career. If he fought the same way against fat Toney, he wins easily.
Vlad in a boring fight. Manny Steward knew how to gameplan for Toney and he would have Vlad pecking away but not giving JT much of an opportunity to counter.
Both Klitschkos stop Toney. He may have had an iron chin but he never had to deal with two extremely well schooled elite 6'6+ superheavyweights punching him in the face for 12 rounds.
Yes, and that is exactly what i am talking about. Wladimir fought an infighting counterpuncher who did not have good punching power and did not knock him out. Instead, he won on points. That is indeed what Wladimir needed to against Toney. Edit: Oops, sorry. I thought that was for me.
Wlad was excellent at making the most of his height/reach advantage. He pretty much shut out guys like Byrd, Chambers, Ibragimov, Mormeck, Haye, etc.., and Toney would be no different. Add in the fact that Toney wouldn't be able to hurt Wlad, and it all adds up to Toney having zero chance in this one. I think Toney would be hard-pressed to land more than 7-8 punches a round. I could see the occasional straight right to the body working very well for Wlad in this one.
Wlad beat Byrd from pillar to post, and Byrd was a much larger and more defensively sound fighter at HW than Toney was. As far as Vitali/Byrd goes the fact of the matter is despite having some problems with him, Vitali was very much winning before suffering an unfortunate injury that took him out of the fight. You can fantasize all you like about Toney "schooling" Vitali, but we both know he gets the heavy bag treatment in that fight.
As fun as the build up would've been with Toney being brash cursing like a sailor unnerving the placid Wladmir, the fight would probably be boring after 3 rounds of excitement. Wladmir would not want to suffer the embarrassment of losing to a small, pudgy blown up middleweight who made fun of him for weeks in press conferences so he'd stick to a careful and ridgid game plan. Expect lots of pawing jabs, a high guard and lateral movement from Wladmir who fights as if Toney has COVID. Toney has his moments early landing a few nice counters and flurries, but becomes increasingly frustrated as the rounds go on with Wladmir squeezing the hell out of him in clinches or getting in his bike the instant Toney closes the distance. It would be a tense, low output fight with neither guy able to land more than 2-3 solid hits per round (primarily jabs). Wladmir wouldn't even attempt more than 2 right hands fearing retaliation. Toney might try to go to the body, but gets pushed back and nailed with a hook or 1-2 to reset. Wladmir takes a very ugly unanimous decision.
