Given all the recent talk about James Toney leading up to his fight against Ruiz, I can't help but think about the only two performances by Toney that I've seen. One is an embarrassing showing against Roy Jones, and the other is an amazing comeback against Michael Nunn. However, that second fight always confuses me when I watch it over again. Toney was losing that fight from the very beginning, it was only his conditioning and chin that saved him from getting knocked out. That fight against Nunn is supposed to be one of his best accomplishments, but Toney didn't seem that dominant to me. Can anybody understand why Toney fought the way he did? It almost seemed lazy to me.

That was very early in the carrer of James Toney. He moved up the ranks and got to a world title fight very quickly. Toney's skills really got alot better after that fight.

Watch his fight with Tim Littles or Vassily Jirov.

toneys fight vs jirov just shows how good he is with his shoulder roll defense and counter punching.....although jirov is not hard to hit

nunn was tall and rangy, and used the jab well. at the time he was considered one of the best p4p. toney was fairly inexperienced at the time, it was (i think) only his 23rd fight. i know in this fight toney got it in his head nunn could'nt hurt him, and that he knew nunn was tiring about mid-fight (he tells the corner during the fight he can hear nunn blowing hard) he was just waiting for nunn to tire and then knock him out. he left it late, i'll admit, but i don't think it's as bad a performance as it looks on the surface.

Nunn was talking so much **** to Toney throughout the entire fight and you could hear it clear on the broadcast, I was so happy when Toney shut him up. Nunn was the man back then.

well you don't have to dominate a fight from the opening bell for it to be one of your best performances...Toney began adjusting in the final rounds...I think from round 9 or 10 on then came away with the KO...skill later in the fight had something to do with it...he began realizing what he had to do

and yes that was early in his career....so to accomplish what he did in that fight vs that calibur of opponent is great for a young fighter

Given all the recent talk about James Toney leading up to his fight against Ruiz, I can't help but think about the only two performances by Toney that I've seen. One is an embarrassing showing against Roy Jones, and the other is an amazing comeback against Michael Nunn. However, that second fight always confuses me when I watch it over again. Toney was losing that fight from the very beginning, it was only his conditioning and chin that saved him from getting knocked out. That fight against Nunn is supposed to be one of his best accomplishments, but Toney didn't seem that dominant to me. Can anybody understand why Toney fought the way he did? It almost seemed lazy to me.Oh, it wasn't dominant by any stretch of the imagination; he was getting his ears boxed off. I bet he was losing by at least 4 pts at the time of the stoppage. That's why that is so impressive; he was gettin his ass kicked.