By Mark Vester
Former three division champion James "Lights Out" Toney is a man on a mission. Now a free agent and running his own promotional company, he see big things for himself and "Lights Out Boxing" in 2009. Plans are shaping up for an upcoming but nothing is set at the moment.
Speaking with BoxingScene.com, Toney told Ernest Gabion that he would love to get in the ring with Bernard Hopkins. He says Hopkins is not the best old school fighter. He says if Hopkins was willing to fight at cruiserweight, then he should step up to heavyweight to see who is the best old school fighter.
"Bernard Hopkins, if he ever think about getting in the ring with me, he better sit back and slap his mama. Him and Roy Jones they talk a good game but when it comes down to it, nothing ever happens. I'll fight Bernard Hopkins. If you think you the best. If you think you the real old school fighter, [then] come see me James "Lights Out" Toney the one and only. You know what I'll do to you, that's why you pulled out the first time. You were smart to pull out the first time because you made money off of De La Hoya. I would have did the same thing too. The time is now or never and in your case I think never," Toney said.
Despite reports elsewhere, Toney has no desire to move down to the cruiserweight division to challenge some of the champions at the weight.
"Why would I do that? I've done something that nobody else has done before. I've come from middleweight and stayed and competed as a heavyweight. I won every title inbetween that from middleweight to super middleweight to light heavyweight to the cruiserweight title. I'm the biggest thing in the heavyweight division and everybody is scared of me like I got AIDS. I'm the best and most well known fighter in the division," Toney said.
Toney told BoxingScene that he did not watch Vitali Klitschko's recent win over Juan Carlos Gomez. He also took some shots at HBO for backing Vitali and his younger brother, Wladimir Klitschko.
"You know why [I didn't watch it]? It was garbage. Why would I want to watch them fight? Him and his sister, they do nothing. They don't impress me at all. They are known out here in America as the Hitler boys. The Hitler boys. When they fight here in the United States, they bring somebody from Russia over like Ibragimov and beat him up in New York," Toney said.
"HBO has the nerve, an American company, they have the nerve to stand behind a German product. Are you crazy? They have the best heavyweight fighter in the world right here but they don't want to mess with me because my mouth is too big. I don't hold my tongue or they say I'm fat. This is not a bodybuilding contest. I'm back to the old James Toney, like when I fought Evander Holyfield. I'm ready to go."
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