jack_the_rippuh
12-15-2004, 02:57 PM
James Toney was one of the few people that actually bought the pay-per-view telecast that featured Vitali Klitschko's dominating victory over Danny Williams this past weekend. He wasn't impressed, to say the least.
"What I saw on Saturday night was preposterous, as Dan (Goossen) would say. It was gah-bage, it wasn't even a good fight," said Toney to Maxboxing on Monday afternoon. "Danny Williams was this decade's Buster Douglas and he proved it."
And he was just as unimpressed with the victor.
"Like I keep on telling you, I don't think much of him or his sorry ass brother. They're a creation of the media, you guys made them - but I'm gonna break them," said an animated Toney. "Like I said before the fight, they're on TV talking about the Ukraine or Kiev, or whatever, and all that with the problems with
their country.
"Save that **** for over there. We don't want your problems. I don't care if that guy got poisoned, that's not my problem," said 'Lights Out' not so diplomatically, proving he has no future with the United Nations once he retires from the ring. "If he don't want to fight, don't fight, go back to your country. Fight the war over there. Don't bring that stuff to the United States.
"We don't like your ass anyway."
Goossen, who promotes the boisterous Toney, chimed in by saying, "It was disgraceful, and to add insult to injury we just got off looking at that other dreck with Byrd and Ruiz. Can you imagine? And then to have the audacity throughout all of this, not ONE mention of James Toney's name out of any announcers lips?"
"They're scared to death, they won't even bring my name out their mouths," said Toney, who was on the same line as his promoter.
But in fairness to HBO's crew, Toney in 2004 was like a high-priced sports car that could barely make it around the block. A February fight against Jameel McCline was scrapped when he ruptured his Achilles, and then in his return bout against Rydell Booker, he damaged his biceps.
It was a lost year.
"I spent the whole year in a cast, but I'm gonna make it up this year," stated Toney. "I'm going to make up for the lost time in '05. I want to fight four or five times."
According to his promoter, we'll be seeing Toney soon.
"He'll be ready to fight at the end of February, early March," said Goossen. "We're looking to get him back at that time frame and we're going to start at the top and go where we've got to go from there. Our first priority is to fight the one that everyone says is 'the one'. Because we disagree with it. So we'll find out if Klitschko wants to do it; he may opt to take another fight.
" But we will look for the biggest fights out there."
There had been talk that Toney would face the winner of Monte Barrett-Owen Beck or another fight that could move Toney up the ratings and into a mandatory position. But he ain't hearing it.
"I'm like this, I'm done with the WBC or WBA. I got the IBA, I'm going to defend my belt against anybody out there," said Toney. "Now look, they want to have a tournament, go ahead, they can decide who's the best of the worst.
"We're going to make these bastards fight. All these heavyweight champions, they wish they were as big as me - they're not. I got the biggest name, I got the biggest punch, I got the biggest promoter out there. All they have to do is stand in line. I'll let Dan dictate who we fight next. I don't care if it's Klitschko, Byrd, whoever. I'll fight anybody, anywhere, anytime, I'm a real fighter."
Goossen says that he has had prior discussions with K2 Promotions and Tom Loeffler about the possibility of making Klitschko-Toney.
"It comes down to this - what are the fights that the fans want to see? There's no question, they want Toney out there fighting Klitschko because they think he can beat Klitschko," said the veteran promoter. "These are the type of fights we want to dictate. Now, the problem that we have here is that no one dictated the Williams fight but Klitschko."
"We advised them, 'Don't do it on pay-per-view, don't do the fight because it gets you nowhere.' And unfortunately I was wrong," continued Goossen. "Because it got them worse than nowhere. Because not only did it translate into a terrible performance by Klitschko, but the attendance was less than 5,500 and that counts the giveaways. And the projected numbers are worse."
It's not known what the attendance was this past weekend at the Mandalay Bay as K2 did not give clearance to release a figure (never a good sign). Also, pay-per-view projections were expected to be around 150,000 buys. Sources say that this is one of the few times that HBO actually lost money on a pay-per-view telecast.
"If you're going to go out there and talk about being the best, well, it's about being the best not only in the ring but with fan support and that means having fannies in the seats and that means having pay-per-views."
But no matter what Toney thinks of Klitschko, it would be a difficult fight. While Toney might be the much more technically sound prizefighter, Klitschko has the huge physical advantages, and to his credit, he finds ways to win.
Conventional wisdom says that the key to beating Klitschko, for Toney, would be to take away his jab and get inside.
"Let me tell you something," explained Toney. "The key to beating Klitschko is getting inside the ring, bottom line. Once I get him in the ring, everything else will fall into place. I don't have a problem. See, unlike most fighters, I don't study films or opponents, I don't look at'em because I feel if you look at films you're a scared man.
"Once I get in the ring, I'll figure him out as we go on."
"What I saw on Saturday night was preposterous, as Dan (Goossen) would say. It was gah-bage, it wasn't even a good fight," said Toney to Maxboxing on Monday afternoon. "Danny Williams was this decade's Buster Douglas and he proved it."
And he was just as unimpressed with the victor.
"Like I keep on telling you, I don't think much of him or his sorry ass brother. They're a creation of the media, you guys made them - but I'm gonna break them," said an animated Toney. "Like I said before the fight, they're on TV talking about the Ukraine or Kiev, or whatever, and all that with the problems with
their country.
"Save that **** for over there. We don't want your problems. I don't care if that guy got poisoned, that's not my problem," said 'Lights Out' not so diplomatically, proving he has no future with the United Nations once he retires from the ring. "If he don't want to fight, don't fight, go back to your country. Fight the war over there. Don't bring that stuff to the United States.
"We don't like your ass anyway."
Goossen, who promotes the boisterous Toney, chimed in by saying, "It was disgraceful, and to add insult to injury we just got off looking at that other dreck with Byrd and Ruiz. Can you imagine? And then to have the audacity throughout all of this, not ONE mention of James Toney's name out of any announcers lips?"
"They're scared to death, they won't even bring my name out their mouths," said Toney, who was on the same line as his promoter.
But in fairness to HBO's crew, Toney in 2004 was like a high-priced sports car that could barely make it around the block. A February fight against Jameel McCline was scrapped when he ruptured his Achilles, and then in his return bout against Rydell Booker, he damaged his biceps.
It was a lost year.
"I spent the whole year in a cast, but I'm gonna make it up this year," stated Toney. "I'm going to make up for the lost time in '05. I want to fight four or five times."
According to his promoter, we'll be seeing Toney soon.
"He'll be ready to fight at the end of February, early March," said Goossen. "We're looking to get him back at that time frame and we're going to start at the top and go where we've got to go from there. Our first priority is to fight the one that everyone says is 'the one'. Because we disagree with it. So we'll find out if Klitschko wants to do it; he may opt to take another fight.
" But we will look for the biggest fights out there."
There had been talk that Toney would face the winner of Monte Barrett-Owen Beck or another fight that could move Toney up the ratings and into a mandatory position. But he ain't hearing it.
"I'm like this, I'm done with the WBC or WBA. I got the IBA, I'm going to defend my belt against anybody out there," said Toney. "Now look, they want to have a tournament, go ahead, they can decide who's the best of the worst.
"We're going to make these bastards fight. All these heavyweight champions, they wish they were as big as me - they're not. I got the biggest name, I got the biggest punch, I got the biggest promoter out there. All they have to do is stand in line. I'll let Dan dictate who we fight next. I don't care if it's Klitschko, Byrd, whoever. I'll fight anybody, anywhere, anytime, I'm a real fighter."
Goossen says that he has had prior discussions with K2 Promotions and Tom Loeffler about the possibility of making Klitschko-Toney.
"It comes down to this - what are the fights that the fans want to see? There's no question, they want Toney out there fighting Klitschko because they think he can beat Klitschko," said the veteran promoter. "These are the type of fights we want to dictate. Now, the problem that we have here is that no one dictated the Williams fight but Klitschko."
"We advised them, 'Don't do it on pay-per-view, don't do the fight because it gets you nowhere.' And unfortunately I was wrong," continued Goossen. "Because it got them worse than nowhere. Because not only did it translate into a terrible performance by Klitschko, but the attendance was less than 5,500 and that counts the giveaways. And the projected numbers are worse."
It's not known what the attendance was this past weekend at the Mandalay Bay as K2 did not give clearance to release a figure (never a good sign). Also, pay-per-view projections were expected to be around 150,000 buys. Sources say that this is one of the few times that HBO actually lost money on a pay-per-view telecast.
"If you're going to go out there and talk about being the best, well, it's about being the best not only in the ring but with fan support and that means having fannies in the seats and that means having pay-per-views."
But no matter what Toney thinks of Klitschko, it would be a difficult fight. While Toney might be the much more technically sound prizefighter, Klitschko has the huge physical advantages, and to his credit, he finds ways to win.
Conventional wisdom says that the key to beating Klitschko, for Toney, would be to take away his jab and get inside.
"Let me tell you something," explained Toney. "The key to beating Klitschko is getting inside the ring, bottom line. Once I get him in the ring, everything else will fall into place. I don't have a problem. See, unlike most fighters, I don't study films or opponents, I don't look at'em because I feel if you look at films you're a scared man.
"Once I get in the ring, I'll figure him out as we go on."