He had weight problems in that era and most of his career, and if he just would have kept more consistent shape it would have been a benefit, but I think Jones just had his number.
Trained properly. Whether it would have made a difference to the final outcome is debatable but I don’t think it would have hurt his performance.
No matter the shape he would have been in, (and as others said, it would not have hurt him if he had watched his diet, trained properly etc.), he would have had to change his style for Roy. James loved fighters who came right at him, (well most do really). He liked to slip and counter. Roy was too fast, moved, and would not cooperate with his style. James would have had to up his punch output per round, become far more aggressive and fight an all out brawl throwing lots of punches. That just was not his style and he'd be too lazy to change it. Even in sparring he liked to fight in close contact, lying on top of one another style sparring sessions. Roy was never going to engage him like that so he was going to have to hunt him down and go all out. My dad and I asked his trainer Bill Miller before that fight, how he was going to do against Roy. His exact response was, "James will beat him because he's a better inside fighter than Roy". The problem was Roy's not going to fight him in close, he'll be fighting him from long range. Even then we knew it.
He fought Prince Charles Williams at 168 just 3 1/2 months prior to fighting Roy Jr at 167 1/2. To get down to 168 for Williams he came down from 181 in 2 1/2 months and nobody made a big deal about that. So I don’t see the weight thing as being as big of a deal as it has been made out … it just smells of ‘I need an excuse.’ If he ballooned up ridiculously and then came back down to basically the same weight in a bit over 100 days, that’s probably what he was doing for most every fight at this point in his career so nothing unusual. There’s a point in I think the seventh round where commentary (Gil Clancy iirc, is that right?) says ‘James Toney can’t find him. They’re in the same ring and he can’t find him.’ Talking about how Roy would engage and then slide off to the side and Toney has to keep resetting and every time he’s about reset, Roy hits him and slides out again. I don’t think anything ever changes that … James was great against people who came to him or stayed in front of him but a fighter like Roy Jr doesn’t fight on a straight line like a railroad track and that’s always going to puzzle Toney if it’s a world-class opponent playing angles on him. That being said, James was the opposite of disciplined. I always figured he got the nickname “Lights Out” because the bulb in his refrigerator burned out from him opening it all the time.
When he is right, Toney could do it all; lead, counter, body attack, punch. A complete fighter. The fight would have been a hell of a lot more competitive. The final outcome would probably been the same.
It stretches the imagination to think he could both gain 45 pounds and then lost it in the space of like 100 days. Because we know exactly what he weighed 3 1/2 months earlier for Prince Charles Williams.
He was always complaining about weight. I was in his room and saw pizza boxes stacked four feet high and empty gallon gatorade jugs on top of that. That was the reason for the weight problem. It was his own fault if he didn't train like the fight of his life with Roy.
Who knows, but as others said having better discipline wouldn't have hurt. Toney is my guy, but he was quite the underachiever and could be very lazy. Sometimes talented people are nerfed with laziness.
