By Terence Dooley
In 1991, James Toney had a wonderful year and in part I of this two-parter we saw how he beat Michael Nunn to claim the IBF title before defending it in quick time versus Reggie Johnson. Now we shall look at how he spent the rest of his year.
The Italian Commission – James Toney Versus Francesco Dell’Aquilla
Like a hungry artist trawling the world for work Toney took up his easel, ink and paint then took off to Monaco to chisel out another piece of his grand design in the land of the Grimaldi. In the opposite corner stood Francesco Dell’Aquilla. Toney came in 4lbs over the weight and inconvenienced the IBF into invoking clause 15 - a US fighter is not to forfeit his title abroad due to a petty technicality such as failing to make the weight.
Toney looked strong in the first round as he floored Francesco with a sweeping left hook then went into a left hook frenzy, Toney was not using his right hand to shorten the blow and at times he would look off-balance.
Perhaps eager to retort Dell’Aquilla came out firing for the second round only to take two looping right hands, astonishingly Toney looked extremely tired in this round. By the third Toney was fighting in spurts as Francesco methodically won the round by peppering the champion with light punches.
Round four showed us that appearances can be deceptive as Toney found his crispness to hurt and floor the local man, a follow-up right hand left Dell’Aquilla stranded on the ropes before a final left-right-left finished the fight at 0.43 of the round.
It was an unusual fight for Toney to take and a very unusual performance, it was already clear that at 160lbs he was weak and emancipated, he could only fight in high-quality, high-powered spurts and it was resulting in fascinating battles.
The Perfect Fight – James Toney Versus Mike McCallum
Aesthetic perfection is founded upon straight lines and symmetry, so a fight that was spilt into a draw on the judge’s scorecards is a good candidate for perfection especially when each matched one another round for round and plot shift for plot shift. After fighting Sosa, Gonzales, Nunn, Johnson and Dell’Aquilla James Toney threw in another fight against a decent quality foe. Michael Nunn was the heir apparent to Marvellous Marvin Hagler and Toney destroyed him, therefore boxing logic shifted the burden of succession onto the shoulders of the highly touted Mike McCallum, a move which no doubt infuriated Toney.
It was a hard bout to score - for some at least – as both men mirrored one another over the twelve rounds. In the final analysis, if you gave both men six rounds each, one needs to look at what they both achieved in winning their rounds, McCallum out-boxed Toney with greater volume at times but at the end of the fight it was McCallum who was left hanging on by a thread. Both men had become mirror images of one another yet Toney had the stronger, purer reflection.
Like a lost Leonardo Da Vinci masterpiece this fight is a mislaid classic with hidden depths. Toney exploded in rounds one and two whilst McCallum came consistently short with his persistent jab. Toney did not match the jab for regularity; he brought in other shots and produced the better counters.
Better shot picking by McCallum took the third round and in the fourth he tried to press his advantage only to find he could not hurt Toney, Toney could hurt McCallum though and detonated a big right hand on the older mans chin. Perhaps over-reliant on power Toney then spent periods in rounds five and six looking to force authority into the fight, McCallum calmly countered the younger man to sweep consecutive rounds for the first time in the fight.
So far both men had been active with McCallum throwing 356 shots and landing 132, at a percentage of 37%, whereas Toney had thrown fewer shots, 320, but was not too far behind in terms of punches landed, 116, and his success rate was almost the twin of McCallum’s, 36%. That 1% might be enough for some simple minded armchair fans to give McCallum the advantage yet of those 16 extra punches how many were jabs?
It certainly seemed that McCallum was jabbing Toney at a rate of 5:1 - five jabs for every single power shot thrown by Toney - yet it was Toney who was doing the damage with his punches. Toney had taken rounds one and two, McCallum had snatched round three only for Toney to reclaim round four before Mike swept the fifth and sixth.
Round six was a microcosm of the fight so far, Toney had a lazy round whilst McCallum worked off his jab and threw the odd right hand. These men were mirroring one another in the ring and splitting the rounds symmetrically.
Rounds seven, eight and nine again presented another fascinating microcosm of the fight as Toney’s fatigue cost him the seventh, it was now a test of character for the young champion and he retorted by blasting his way to round eight as McCallum continued to try and pickpocket the fight.
Energy expanded Toney dipped again in round nine and for the first time McCallum came out better in the exchanges. Toney had taken round eight by blasting his way through the middle of the round and breaking the boxing momentum of McCallum, rounds seven, eight and nine had mirrored this, Toney only won the eighth and did so by producing a round of fireworks sandwiched between two impressive rounds of boxing by McCallum.
It was all to fight for and the final three rounds would produce another switch in the tide as Toney exploded into life during the first minute of round ten, heavier punches from Toney made McCallum look tired although he did pitty-pat his way through the middle third of the round, not to be denied Toney blasted for the final third of the session before ending the stanza with an impressive left hook-right hand volley. This round was a microcosm of the late switch in the fight with Toney punching for the first third of the round, McCallum boxing for the second and Toney bombing to seize the round.
Toney did not hold onto his endeavour though, in the eleventh McCallum boxed well on the back foot as a clearly tired Toney trundled after him. There was some clean work from McCallum but the wind was wrenched from his sails by a big right hand towards the end of the round.
Finally one of them stepped-up to take control, in the twelfth round Toney crashed in right hands and a strong left hook had McCallum in big trouble. Unable to finish the fight Toney left his elegant challenger on wobbly legs at the final bell, both men had matched one another in terms of technique but Toney had carried the final round big.
Punch stats were unhelpful, those who feel fights should be judged on volume, sadly there are many of them, would feel vindicated in awarding the fight to McCallum, in the final analysis he threw 890 shots and landed at a rate of 39% whereas Toney threw 823 and landed at a rate of 41%; did one go for economy or work-rate? McCallum landed almost a hundred more jabs and this does indicate that he built his attack on that blow yet he did not follow-up on his jab the way Toney did, Toney jabbed sporadically then used McCallum’s jab to precipitate his own bombs.
One guy punched and the other scored, it was almost too close to call but Toney had come through his sophomore year intact, he had seen off two men labelled the heir apparent to the legendary Marvin Hagler and was now the law at 160lbs. However Toney was consistently exsiccating himself to make the weight. His reign, and his great weight struggles, had only just begun.
So far he had shown that he could fight from behind a jab, chase a lead and fight when he was drained and dog-tired, he was shaping up to be a special boxer.